Journey of Spirits
by BahamutReishiki
Summary: Ichigo Kurosaki was enjoying a return to normalcy when he is forcibly brought to the Soul Society to help Kisuke Urahara with an experiment. When something goes wrong and he finds himself stuck in the world of Azeroth with no conceivable way of returning to his own world will he be crushed under the despair or rise to new heights as the hero he was always meant to be?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own neither Bleach nor World of Warcraft.

_Here is the first chapter of my new story. While I know that I said I would be making a rewrite of "Bleached Into Azeroth" creating an entirely new story and plot was much easier and potentially better in the long run. With an entire new cast of characters I plan on making this as good, if not better, then my other stories._

_Chapter 1 Edited: July 7, 2013_

_Inspiration has struck and I find myself going back to this story and revised it. I looked over this chapter and added several segments, rewrote others, and updated some of the information to be more in line with the current progress of the manga. I also changed many mentions of the soul society to the Seireitei, which is inside the Soul Society and is thus a different place. Several obvious grammatical errors were also fixed. All in all, about 300 words were added to this chapter to help clarify and make the story flow better. Expect edits to Chapter 2 to happen soon. Chapter 5 is in the works so stay tuned!_

**1. Raximus - You bring up an excellent point. Giving armor to Ichigo was something I tried to do to add character development to him by giving him some history on the world he arrived on. It didn't really work out the way I hoped so I don't think anyone will be getting armor in this new story.**

**2. Blinded in a bolthole - I don't consider it a rewrite (even though I said so in the update chapter). I am using a (mostly) new set of characters with only Ichigo and Uryu remaining from the original cast of seven. This story also starts off somewhere between the defeat of Xcution but before the invasion by the Vandenreich. The Lich king thing was not supposed to demonstrate Rukia's powers because he was not really at full strength. It was more of a mental battle between Rukia and the Lich King and Rukia only won because she had several moves and abilities that he did not expect and thus took him completely off guard. If they were to fight again he would most likely win since he had seen most of her attacks and would be prepared.**

**3. Rei Rusuragi - I decided to use Harribel based a little on your suggestion even if I included her in the rough draft before reading your review. To me she is a more interesting character to write than Neliel (but not by much) and I look forward to developing her over the course of the story.**

**4. Opinion Giver - Uryu Ishida was a given character due to how much his character was given development in the manga. There is a lot I can write about as well as speculate on. While he was initially portrayed as cold and indifferent he had gotten some major screentime and I intend to capitalize on that. I thought about using Chad but he was such a hard character to write about that I did not know what to do. As for Neliel, she is fun to write about and all but rather hard to actually put her in a plot where she is not either totally childish or a cold-stone fighter. **

**5. Infinite Freedom – Relax. Don't think of it as a revision, rewrite, or redo. While I did say that in the chapter note I decided to start from scratch with a mostly new group of travelers. It just seemed to work out that way.**

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**Journey of Spirits**

**Chapter 1: Dues Ex Machina **

Ichigo Kurosaki was known to be many things to different people. To his sisters he was the aloof and protective older brother who could be counted on whenever he was needed, to his friends he was the person who would be the first one to head into hell to rescue them and it was to the Soul Society that he was seen as a savior. It was his strength and will to go on that stopped the machinations of Aizen Sosuke to create to Ouken and invade the royal realm to supplant himself as god and ruler and everything by killing the spirit king.

He was not known for being a particularly patient person, especially with those that kidnap him in the middle of the night.

So he was pissed.

"Do you mind answering a simple question Urahara?"

The mad scientist and former captain of the Twelfth Division looked up from the machine he was tinkering with, "But of course Ichigo. You can ask me anything."

"WHY THE HELL AM I TIED TO THIS CHAIR?"

The last few hours were a complete blank to Ichigo. It was only a few days ago that he fought and killed Ginjo while stopping Xcution's plans to steal his Fullbring to take his revenge against the Soul Society. While he understood where the other substitute shinigami was coming from, he couldn't let him harm innocent people to get back at one man. After he made sure Ginjo's body would get a proper burial he had hoped for some semblance of normality in his life. No more madmen vying to become gods or take revenge against the entire afterlife. He knew, of course, that he would need to fight the occasional hollow in Karakura Town and perform Konso on souls to send them to the afterlife but that was fine with him. Something like that wouldn't bother him at all. Therefore, it came as a surprise when he fell asleep in his bed in the Human World and woke up tied to a chair as a shinigami.

"That is a very good question Ichigo and we will come to that later but for now let us move on. Assistant if you will?"

"Oh shut up," a nasally voice sneered from the other side of the room. The deranged genius and current captain of squad twelve, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, was busy working on something connected to the machine in the center of the room, "I'm not your assistant so why don't you get it yourself? As you can see I am quite busy making sure this thing doesn't blow up in our faces."

"I thought the deal was that if I kidnapped them you would act as my assistant for the demonstration?"

The captain rolled his eyes, "I hardly think I would ever agree to participate in several felonies in order to sate my scientific curiosity."

The room became utterly silent as everyone, including Urahara, stared at Mayuri. Realizing the incredulousness of what he just said, the captain quickly added, "Let me rephrase that. I will never agree to participate in felonies that have a high probability of getting myself caught."

"Ugh…"

It was at this point that Ichigo realized he was not the only person Urahara had kidnapped. Tied to a chair just a couple of feet to his left, Uryu Ishida groggily regained consciousness. As the fog cleared from the quincy's mind, he began to remember what happened before he was brought to the Soul Society. Shaking his head to alleviate his headache he noticed Urahara, looking at him with the usual insufferable smile, and shouted, "It was you, you bastard! Who the hell do you think you are to kidnap someone in the middle of dinner?"

Uryu could still remember the calm and passive look on Ryūken's face as he continued to eat his dinner while Urahara drugged him. If he ever saw his father again he would make him pay.

"No, this isn't right," Urahara thought out loud while scratching the back of his neck in confusion, "Something must have happened. Perhaps there was a mix up…"

"Are you suggesting that kidnapping me was an accident?"

"What?" the scientist was startled by the question, "Oh no. It appears I accidently drugged you with a sleeping agent too weak. Next time I'm going to have to up the dosage. You woke up far too early."

Uryu struggled against his bonds, "You bastard!"

Urahara ignored him and turned to Mayuri, "Assistant, if you would begin the demonstration."

A remote flew across the room into Urahara's stomach with enough force to bend him over, "That is all the assistance you are going to get out of me. Now if you don't mind I have some final preparations to go over. There appears to be an issue with a couple of the capacitors that could impact the reliability of the data we will collect."

Without so much as a cough or wheeze Urahara stood up and pressed a button on the remote causing a screen to come down out of the ceiling. Pressing it again brought up an image, "As you can see this is a picture of the Soul Society during a lovely spring day. Note the birds and the butterflies in the background."

"Do you think we're idiots?"

Before he could blink a piece of white chalk shot out of Urahara's sleeve and hit Ichigo square in the forehead. When he tried to grab his head to alleviate the pain he was rudely reminded of his current predicament.

Urahara took a noticeable amount of pleasure out of watching Ichigo thrash about in his restraints before continuing, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, this is a picture of the Soul Society and this," he pressed the remote to change the slides, "is the method Kukaku Shiba had you use to break through the barrier surrounding it when you rescued Rukia. As the equations on the slide indicate, that method had a survival rate of just over 68%."

"What?" Uryu shouted from beside Ichigo, "Are you suggesting that you purposely sent us to some psychotic pyromaniac who would more than likely have had us blown to bits before we even entered the Soul Society?"

Urahara's visibly deflated before his goofy smile returned; "I wouldn't have said it in those exact words but…yes!"

Uryu tried to come up with a comeback but the sheer lack of intelligence coming from one of the most intelligent minds in the Soul Society had finally caught up to him. Rather than continuing to argue he simply hung his head down in defeat.

"With that settled if there are no more questions let me get to the point. As you both know Uryu is a quincy and a rather powerful one at that. Therein lies the crux of the problem. Mayuri if you will?"

The current Twelfth Division captain pressed a button on a second remote causing a chart with various stats and Uryu's picture to appear, "The young quincy's inherent spiritual pressure and abilities are already known to operate on a different level than that of shinigami but still allow access to similar abilities. What is disturbing is that the basic nature of his spiritual pressure makes a mockery of the barrier protecting the Seireitei."

Another click brings up a different slide; "A quincy with sufficient skill and power can draw in spiritual energy from his or her surroundings in order to fuel their own abilities. I myself bore witness to this when the young quincy used an ability known as Letzt Stil to absorb the surrounding buildings in the Seireitei to increase his own power dramatically. Based on that I have developed the hypothesis that a strong enough quincy could use this ability without powering up and simply 'absorb' the barrier, allowing them to walk through it."

"Wait a minute, how do you know all this?"

Mayuri's face looked at Uryu with disdain, "Don't you remember me saying that I implanted your body with numerous surveillance bacteria?"

"I thought you removed them?"

"Now why would I waste valuable time and resources throwing them out when I could just lie to you that I removed them?"

"You bastard-"

"Don't worry about that," Urahara dismissed, "I took the liberty of removing all the bacteria from your body after Aizen's defeat."

"Those bacteria were my property Kisuke. I expect you to fully reimburse me for both the research and development costs."

"Well you can keep expecting."

"That's all well and good Urahara but why did you tie us up?" Ichigo asked.

"Because Ichigo…I just love a captive audience!"

"God you suck."

A second piece of chalk flew out of Urahara's sleeve and hit Ichigo with enough force to knock over the chair he was tied to.

"Damn it that hurt! Stop throwing crap at me."

"Your suggestion has been noted Ichigo. I will take that into consideration in the future in case anyone interrupts me," he said glancing at Uryu who tried to look as innocent as possible.

With an exasperated sigh Mayuri decided it was time for him to take over, "If the stupidity and lunacy are out of your systems for the time being let me get down to the crux of the matter. To rectify this problem we have built a device that, in theory, should prevent quincy's from passing through it."

"The way the new barrier system would work is by taking advance of the singular weakness of the quincy's absorption ability. In order to use the ability, the quincy needs to adjust their own body's spiritual energy to match the surroundings so that it can be absorbed. By creating a barrier with spiritual currents and ebbs that constantly adjust both their velocity and direction as well as overall intensity, it should prevent this 'link up' between the barrier and the quincy and prevent them from passing through."

"I don't mean to punch a hole in your argument but isn't Uryu the last quincy?"

"That is what we thought until we started hearing some rumblings of a group consisting of individuals with abilities strangely similar to a quincy's," Urahara explained to Uryu's astonishment, "Do not for a second think you were the only one to notice. If these people are indeed quincies, then there is a reason they have remained hidden from the Seireitei's eyes for so long."

"How much do you know?" Uryu asked. He had planned to find out as much as he could on his own but if Urahara knew then there was no reason to go.

"Not as much as I would like," Urahara admitted, "We know nothing of their overall strength, numbers, abilities or even where they are gathering."

"Unfortunately Kisuke is correct," Mayuri continued, "From the limited data we have managed to gather, several bursts of quincy reiatsu have been recorded in Hueco Mundo over the last few months. These bursts have always been followed by the mass destruction of dozens to hundreds of hollows. The last time something like this occurred was during the quincy invasion of the Soul Society nearly one thousand years ago. Eight captains and nearly thirteen hundred shinigami were killed before the quincy retreated."

"It took the captain-commander himself to push back the quincy king but even he was unable to actually kill him," Urahara added.

Uryu couldn't believe what he was hearing. His grandfather had regaled him with stories of how the quincy protected humans and souls from hollows when the shinigami were unable to respond in time. Even if a hollow's soul was destroyed by the quincy, it was a small price to pay to save a loved one. To find out that his people had tried to exterminate the only beings that could prevent hollows from forming was ludicrous, "I don't understand. Why did I not know any of this?"

"Most likely because most quincies considered it the darkest blight in their history. While the majority of the quincy followed their king into battle, a lot did not. They did not see any reason to fight the shinigami when both groups did the same thing. Knowing that their king would kill them if he found out, they fled around the world and kept themselves in close-knit families or clans."

"Hold on a sec," Ichigo asked from the floor, " Are you saying that there was someone besides Aizen who could fight the old man without getting killed?"

"The leader of the quincy was extraordinarily strong Ichigo, and recent data suggests he is not as dead as we thought."

"How is he still alive after so long? I know shinigami live a long time but a quincy is still a human."

"Obviously," Mayuri stated with disgust, "As for whether or not that man is still alive remains to be seen but if he is, he has had a millennium to prepare for his next battle with the captain-commander. The odds are stacked in his favor unless we can negate some of the quincy's more dangerous abilities."

"What was his name?"

"His name is of no importance. Just know that it was not Aizen that forced the captain-commander to unleash his bankai."

The room was silent for a couple of seconds before Urahara coughed to break the tension, "Anyway, back on topic. After much effort we think we have developed a device that should negate the quincy's ability to absorb ambient spiritual particles. While the full size model will be enormous what we have here is a smaller model built exclusively for today's testing. When it's turned on a spherical barrier roughly three meters in radius will surround the device, preventing anything from passing through except air and light."

"Air and light? Do you have to be so specific?"

"That's a moronic question," Mayuri answered, "Let's say the barrier stopped everything from passing through it. How would you see what's in front of you if light couldn't penetrate it? Without an inflow of air those inside would soon suffocate from their very own breath. If you are not going to ask intelligent questions I urge you to simply keep that mouth of yours shut."

"If you needed me to test your stupid machine why didn't you just ask me?"

"I couldn't risk it."

"Oh? And why not?"

"Because you are likely being observed Ichigo," Urahara said in a tone that brokered no nonsense, "If these people really are quincies then they are most likely up to date on the recent events in the Seireitei. They probably know about Aizen and how you defeated him even after he used the hogyoku to evolve. Mayuri is right about one thing. Aizen did not force the captain-commander to use his bankai but that was because of that specialized arrancar sealing his zanpakuto."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You are a variable in the spiritual realm Ichigo and if I were them I would keep a very close eye on you and where you go. If they turn out to be hostile and find out you are still working with the Seireitei they might just plan on attacking when you are unable to help. By kidnapping you I keep up the charade that you want nothing to do with us."

"You kidnapped me! Of course I don't want to be here!"

"See? Then it worked," Urahara offhandedly remarked.

"If you just needed to tie us up to get us into the Seireitei why haven't you untied us yet?" Uryu asked.

Urahara blinked twice before replying sheepishly, "You know what, I completely forgot."

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Several minutes later the smoking body of Urahara could be seen facedown in the floor with Ichigo and Uryu standing over him rubbing their sore hands. As Urahara slowly picked himself off the ground without a hint of pain they both began to wonder just what the man's body was made of.

"Now that you got all that pent up frustration out of your systems I should let you know that I am expecting someone very important soon. I need you two to be on your best behaviors."

"Please Urahara," Uryu said condescendingly, "Do you take us for unruly children?"

Urahara adopted a thoughtful pose before speaking, "Let us take a look at your argument…you invaded the Seireitei and threw it into chaos, you let the Bounts in just so you can fight them on an even footing, and let us not forget about your excursion into Hueco Mundo that nearly got you killed. I think your are starting to get my point."

"You helped us two of those times!"

"If you didn't ask me for help I wouldn't have offered."

"But you-"

Whatever Uryu was about to say was cut off as a strange spiritual pressure appeared at the edge of their senses. While it had the unmistakable aura and characteristics of an arrancar it did not feel malicious or aggressive. It was almost as if its owner was merely announcing their presence. As it saturated the room Urahara seemed to perk up.

"Oh good my guest has arrived!"

"Guest?" Ichigo and Uryu asked at the same time as the door to the room opened. The first person to walk through the door was the diminutive captain of the Tenth Division, Toshiro Hitsugaya, and judging by the expression on his face he was not particularly pleased to be here. Before either of them could ask what was wrong a second person walked through the door.

Standing almost two feet above Hitsugaya was a woman Ichigo had never seen before. Her dark brown skin, blonde hair with three braided locks and green eyes would have normally made her stand out almost anywhere but that was not what made him be on guard. The familiar white outfit, zanpakuto strapped horizontally across her back and the mask fragments on her lower face concealed by her high collar overshadowed her exotic appearance. She was an arrancar, and by the feeling of her spiritual pressure, a powerful one at that.

"I'm glad you could make it. Did you have any trouble finding the place?"

The woman looked around before her eyes settled on the strange machine sitting in the middle of the room. "I'm guessing that has something to do with why I was brought here," she said in an almost bored tone.

"What is she doing here?" Ichigo asked pointing at the woman.

Urahara looked puzzled, "I'm not sure what you mean Ichigo."

"Yes you do! How did an arrancar get into the Soul Society?"

"I needed her to come here in order to test out every little detail of my machine."

"_Our_ machine," Mayuri reminded.

"Right," Urahara quickly agreed, "In order to make sure the machine is calibrated properly we need to test it against various types of spiritual beings. As you already know there are multiple spiritual beings out there including shinigami, hollow, arrancar, quincy, and fullbringer. While they all might have similar abilities their spiritual energies are quite different. Quincy, for example, are special humans who came about after several shinigami fell in love with humans and passed on a portion of their power to their children. Fullbringers are almost the exact opposite with the mother being attacked by a hollow while pregnant, which allows a small part of the hollow's energy to enter the child. With all these different types of spiritual beings trying to create something that can stop each one is quite hard."

"I know about that," Ichigo grumbled, "I was asked what she was doing here in the first place."

"Oh?" Harribel asked slightly intrigued, "I do not believe I ever met you while I was working for Aizen."

Ichigo folded his arms across his chest, "After I defeated Aizen, Orihime told me how three arrancar appeared and asked her to heal their leader or something."

"Are you referring to the woman that Lord Aizen had Ulquiorra abduct?" Harribel asked, "I remember her healing me from the verge of death after Aizen's betrayal. I owe her gratitude for saving my life."

After a slight pause Uryu asked, "How did you get a powerful arrancar into the soul society without getting caught Urahara?"

Despite the valid question Urahara did not seem worried, rather he seemed quite pleased with himself, "Please, who do you take me for? Of course I asked the captain-commander about allowing her into the soul society. Granted he did try to burn the flesh from my bones with his zanpakuto at first but after he realized the importance of testing my-"

"Ours…" Mayuri reminded him with a little more force.

"-device he acquiesced. His only stipulation was that a captain accompanies her at all times."

"Which is why I'm here."

"Toshiro?"

"For the last time it's Captain Hitsugaya, not Toshiro. I'm here because out of all the captains in the soul society I have the most experience with fighting Harribel during the winter war. I have seen the majority of her techniques and can turn them against her if she were to decide to attack. If I am unable to actually stop her I can stall her long enough for reinforcements to arrive."

Ichigo and Uryu both distinctively heard a snort of derision come from Harribel at the mention of stopping her but when they turned her face was as stoic as ever. Stepping forward she looked at Urahara, "Let's just get this over with so I can head back to Hueco Mundo. Being surrounded by so many shinigami is getting intolerable."

"Hold on a second," Ichigo said, "Is Toshiro here to make sure your machine works on shinigami?"

"Of course not!" Mayuri spoke up shoving Urahara to the side, "This device is still untested and is extremely dangerous until proven otherwise. If it were to detonate due to a critical flaw in the design we cannot afford to lose a captain. You are much more expendable Ichigo and as for the quincy, I can no longer get anything viable from him."

"It's funny how you forgot to mention that piece of information shinigami," Harribel growled as her hand inched towards her zanpakuto, "When were you going to enlighten me on how I could be killed?"

His danger senses screaming at him, Urahara raised his arms defensively, "Mayuri is blowing the danger of the device out of proportion Harribel! The current probability of someone getting instantly vaporized upon contact with the barrier is roughly 3%, although if you are wearing the color red that triples for some reason."

When Harribel did not stop reaching towards her zanpakuto, Toshiro inched his hand slowly to his own. At the rate things were progressing, he could tell things were not going to end well for anyone.

As a last-ditch measure to avoid a fight Urahara decided to play his trump card, "Before you kill me, I still haven't told you what you will be getting out of all this."

Harribel's hand stopped moving, "I'm listening shinigami."

Urahara sighed in relief, "After much pleading and begging I managed to convince the captain-commander to agree to pardon you and your subordinates. As long as you do not act against the Seireitei no shinigami will come after you."

Harribel's hand stopped. She had not been aware that she would be getting something in return for helping the shinigami. She had assumed that all shinigami were liars and betrayers like Lord Aizen. When that annoying blonde haired girl from the winter war approached her a couple of weeks ago she was told to help the shinigami with something or she would be punished. While she would usually kill those would threaten those precious to her she was intelligent enough to know that aggravating the shinigami was a poor choice.

Closing her eyes and letting out a deep breath she asked, "Is this true?"

"Do you want it in writing?"

She shook her head, "That will not be necessary. I believe you are telling the truth but know this…"

Harribel leaned forward and let out a trickle of her spiritual pressure, "If I find out you are lying, and I will, you will understand an entirely new definition of pain and suffering."

"That is something I would pay to witness," Mayuri added, "If that does come to pass I'll even allow you into the soul society to do the deed."

"If we are done describing my murder are there any more questions?"

"Something's bugging me Urahara," Ichigo stated as he began counting on his fingers, "You said that you needed different people to test your machine right? We have Uryu for the quincies, Harribel for the arrancar and I'm guessing I'm the shinigami-"

A sound similar to that of a buzzer rang, "Wrong Ichigo! You see when you regained your shinigami powers while fighting Ginjo you also kept a trace amount of your fullbring as well. Enough was left inside your soul that I'm afraid the machine would give erroneous results. I will need another pawn, I mean volunteer, to make sure it works on shinigami."

"So who did you manage to blackmail into doing this?"

"Blackmail is such a strong word Ichigo. I prefer to think of it as extortion or coercion."

"That's even worse!"

"Who did you manage to trick into doing this?" Uryu interjected.

"Maybe he managed to convince Rukia?"

"Nope!" Urahara nearly shouted, "I tried but her brother threatened to 'flay my skin off my still living corpse' if I so much as got within ten feet of her."

"Well, what about Renji?"

"Captain Kuchiki said that it would be too much of a hassle to find a replacement lieutenant this time of the year. Don't worry about who I managed to rope into doing this Ichigo," Urahara flippantly said as he flicked a switch on the device, "Now let us start this experiment."

A low hum resounded through the room as various lights blinked into existence on the machine. After a few minutes the humming stopped but nothing seemed to have changed.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a closer look, "Is it on? I can't see anything."

"Of course it's on you imbecile," Mayuri spat, "The barrier surrounding the Seireitei is normally invisible to the naked eye. What makes you think this would be any different?"

Ichigo huffed and crossed his arms, "Ass."

"That should just about do it!" Urahara's voice echoed from behind the device, "Everything appears to be perfectly calibrated and ready for testing. Harribel if you would do the honors of going first."

"And why should I go first shinigami?"

Urahara let out a meek laugh, "Well, since this new device is replacing the barrier currently in pace, the number one priority is making sure it still prevents hollows from passing through. While it would be nice if it can stop quincies, if hollows can bypass it then it's useless."

As he explained why he needed Harribel to go first she continued to glare at with an intensity that reminded him of the time he forgot to buy Yoruichi a birthday present. The feeling soon passed when Harribel sighed and walked towards the device.

"What is it you need me to do?"

"You just need to stand at the line on the floor and extend your arm forward. If it works then you should make contact with the barrier just before your arm reaches full extension."

Looking down Harribel saw a line of red duct tape with the logo of "Urahara Shoten" on it. Stopping in front of it she raised her hand and just like Urahara had said her hand was stopped just before it reached eye level. Rapping her knuckles against the barrier she heard a sound reminiscent of plastic. Intrigued at its strength she put her palm against the barrier and pushed but was surprised when it didn't shatter. Mannerisms and being a shinigami aside, the man currently watching the interaction from within the barrier was a genius. It was no surprise that her former master lost to him.

"Impressive work shinigami," she complemented, "I doubt anything but my strongest attack would damage it and even that would create nothing more then a scratch."

When she turned to walk away she took a few steps before stopping suddenly. Quickly pivoting on her heel she twisted around and threw a punch with all the strength she could muster in her sealed state. The second her fist impacted against the barrier a large wave of spiritual energy was released that quickly spread beyond the room. However despite the strength behind the punch the barrier did not do anything besides quiver slightly.

Hitsugaya quickly drew his zanpakuto and moved to stop her, "What do you think you're doing?"

She stood up and flexed her fingers, "Nothing. I was simply testing it."

"Testing it?"

Her cold glare put him on edge, "Are you shinigami so conceited that you think a hollow or arrancar would simply stop if they hit a barrier? They would find it a challenge to overcome. I was testing it to its limits, as was part of my arrangement."

Inside the barrier and fixing something on the machine with a wrench Urahara could be heard saying, "Don't worry about it Toshiro, I fully expected her to do that. From what I heard she is not one to do things half-assed."

"It's Captain Hitsugaya and that is not what worries me. I'm more concerned about the consequences of that burst of spiritual pressure Harribel just released."

"Don't be naïve," Mayuri dismissed, "The shockwave from that amount of spiritual pressure should dissipate before it gets a thousand feet away. There is absolutely no one within that range that would be able to figure out where it came from. I made sure of that."

"Oh dear me," Urahara muttered as a feeling of dread coursed through his soul, "It's a good thing Mayuri and I are inside this currently impenetrable barrier. Who knows what unsavory fiends will be drawn to an explosion of such intense spiritual energy?"

As Ichigo's brain processed the situation his eyes widened in shock and fear. Grabbing Uryu's shoulder he attempted to flee the room, "Uryu we need to get out of here and find someplace to hide before he comes!"

"Before who comes Ichigo?"

Uryu's question was answered as a loud crash resounded from outside the room. As an eerie silence permeated the air Ichigo realized that the only way out of the room was through the door and that was the one place he did not want to go at this time. Eyes darting around for anyplace to hide, he was prevented from fleeing when a sandaled foot kicked through the door and sent it rocketing through the room towards the various occupants. While Ichigo and Uryu dove out of the way of the improvised projectile, Toshiro could only blink as the flying door spun through the air just inches over his head and crashed into the opposite wall.

As the dust cleared Kenpachi Zaraki, the captain of the Eleventh Division, sauntered into the room without his diminutive lieutenant hanging from his shoulder. A predatory grin adorned his face as he looked around the room, "So this is where that burst of strong spiritual pressure came from. So…who was it?"

"Kenpachi?" Ichigo shouted, "How the hell did you get here so fast?"

Kenpachi shrugged, "Yachiru was excited about this shortcut she found through the Seireitei and like an idiot I believed her. The next thing I know I'm lost as hell. After several hours I got annoyed and decided to take a nap since I had nothing better to do. Then that burst of spiritual pressure woke me up and I just had to find whoever that was. Was it you Ichigo? Taunting me to fight you again…I'm so glad you remembered."

As Ichigo quickly and violent shook his head in the negative Harribel spoke up, "It was me shinigami. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Eh?" Kenpachi said noticing Harribel for the first time, his eyes trailing over her body, before sighing dejectedly, "Great. The first strong opponent I find in over a year and they happen to be a woman."

Harribel's hand gripped her zanpakuto, "What did you just say?"

"Hey no offense you are strong and all, stronger than that arrancar I fought in Las Noches with the six arms, but I don't go and pick fights with women, it's just not my thing. There is only one woman I would ever fight and you are not her."

Before the argument could escalate into a fight Kenpachi seemed to notice something, "Hang on just a minute. Two captains, an arrancar, a quincy and Ichigo all in the same room? Something interesting must be happening."

"We're here because Captain Kurotsuchi and Kisuke Urahara are testing a machine they invented," Hitsugaya informed his fellow captain, "They apparently need different spiritual beings to make sure it works correctly. The burst of spiritual pressure that most likely brought you here was Harribel testing the machine's capacity against a powerful arrancar."

"So it's something that I can hit?"

"Er…if you say so," Hitsugaya hesitantly replied. Leave it to Kenpachi to find a way to turn a scientific experiment into something that requires fighting.

"Oh boy," Kenpachi growled in excitement as he drew his zanpakuto, "Nothing like a good warm up in the morning to get a day started."

"Now hold on a minute," Urahara warned from inside the barrier, "I would be happy to test out the barrier against someone of your barbaric and herculean strength but we need to do it in a certain order. Don't worry, if you still want to do it you will have your chance in about ten minutes."

When Kenpachi stepped back and grumbled in annoyance Urahara turned to Uryu, "Do you happen to have any of your Seele Schneiders on you?"

"You kidnapped me from my house. What makes you think I have any of my quincy equipment with me?"

"Don't be like that," Urahara joked, "If you look to your left you will see a box with several pieces of quincy equipment as well as your uniform."

"You robbed me when you kidnapped me?"

"Oh heavens no! I robbed you _way_ before I kidnapped you."

While Uryu struggled to figure out just how many laws Urahara had broken in the past 24 hours the genius scientist decided to press on with the experiment, "When you come out of your stupor I would like for you to try and attack the barrier with a Seele Scheinder."

Shoulders slumping in disbelieve Uryu grabbed one of the spiritual weapons from the box. As he began to channel his spiritual energy and causing a blade of ultra-high vibrating spiritual particles to come into existence he made it a goal to figure out just how much Urahara had screwed with him and what he could do to take his revenge.

Calming himself down with a series of deep breaths, Uryu drew his spiritual weapon back and quickly thrust it forward towards the barrier. As the tip of the sword touched the barrier a series of grinding noises similar to that of metal screeched while blue and purple sparks flew off of the point of contact. After several seconds of failing to damage the barrier Uryu's Seele Schneider lost traction and slid off the side of the barrier, causing the young quincy to stumble.

"Well? How did it go?" Urahara asked with a clipboard in his hands.

Uryu ignored the stupidly obvious question, "It was interesting. Seele Schneider usually absorbs spiritual constructs without a problem but your barrier resisted my attempt to do so. Whatever you did to construct it must have been extraordinary. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go over to the corner of the room to change. Since I have this box of equipment that you stole I might as well use it."

Urahara seemed to be pleased at the comment but Mayuri was not so pleased, "If we are done giving false accolades I do believe we are not quite finished. Kurosaki you are next. Use whatever power you have and attack the barrier with your zanpakuto as hard as you believe necessary. Just don't break anything."

Stepping forward Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu off his back and drew it in front of his body as the bandages slowly shrunk into the hilt.

"Just remember not to use Getsuga Tenshou Ichigo!" Urahara warned, "The barrier may survive the attack but if you destroy the room I'll get in trouble and if I get in trouble I'll make sure YOU get in trouble. I know where you live after all."

Ichigo gave a nervous nod and steadied his stance. Raising his zanpakuto into the air he waited a moment before stepping forward and swinging it down with enough force to dislodge dust from the ceiling. When the dust settled he looked down at the point of impact between the barrier and his sword and saw that the barrier, which had remained solid and unyielding to its first two attackers, had taken on the consistency of water, with waves in the surface rippling out from the point of impact.

Inside the barrier Urahara had a small frown, "Hmm, there appears to be a small variance in the flow of the spiritual particles of the barrier due to the effects of Ichigo's fullbring. I think that could be easily fixed with a small modification to the density of the spiritual particle field."

"That is highly unlikely to fix the problem," Mayuri commented while looking at readouts of the device's data, "The problem has to do with the spiritual field not being able to account for modified shinigami spiritual energy mixing with the fullbring at the same time. We should slightly polarize it to allow it to be able to adjust itself."

Urahara scratched at his chin before shrugging, "That could work…but we can deal with fixing the barrier after we have gathered the rest of the data. Who is up next?"

"Is it finally my turn?"

Everybody in the room watched as Kenpachi walked forward while slowly drawing his zanpakuto.

"Remember you are simply testing it so don't actually destroy it," Urahara warned.

"Yeah I get it. Don't break the machine powering the bubble. What do you take me for, an idiot?"

No one had the nerve to give him an answer.

"Anyway," he continued, "You want me to just hit this thing as hard as I can right?"

"Not as hard as _you_ can," Mayuri corrected, "If you were to do so the captain-commander would most likely get mad at us all."

"Way to spoil the fun," Kenpachi grumbled before stepping forward and swinging his zanpakuto down onto the barrier. As everyone closed their eyes thinking that he would break it they were stunned when nothing happened. When a frown of displeasure formed on his face they all knew something bad was about to happen.

"That's strange. Ichigo managed to make it ripple with a simple swing but I couldn't even do that. Perhaps I'm just not hitting it hard enough…"

"_He's completely lost it!"_ Hitsugaya thought as he slowly backed away from the insane captain.

Ichigo was slowly edging himself behind Uryu with the knowledge that Kenpachi could get bored any second and look to him for a fight.

Harribel's thoughts were of a slightly different nature, _"So this is the shinigami that Nnoitra lost to. I can see how it took insanity to beat insanity. That chauvinistic bastard had what was coming to him."_

Kenpachi raised his arm over his head and swung his zanpakuto down with more force that the first time. As another loud bang reverberated he was already bringing his arm up for another attack. After a total of four swings he let out a breath.

"Nothing huh? Guess that rippling from Ichigo's attack was just a fluke. Speaking of which, let's have a fight Ichigo! All that stretching has got me pumped up for a real fight!"

"Hell no!" Ichigo shouted as he turned to run away only for Kenpachi to grab the back of his shihakusho.

"Where do you think you're going Ichigo? You're not running away from a fight are you?"

"Like hell I'm going to fight you!" Ichigo responded as he tried to desperately wriggle out of the captain's grip, "A fight with you is a fight to the death and that's not what I want to happen. I'm only seventeen damn it!"

Kenpachi frowned, "But a plain old fight is boring. Fighting to the death makes it interesting. It gives the final push to make it really exciting! Besides, I still owe you for my first defeat back-"

"Oh dear…"

Kenpachi turned in annoyance towards the person that had dared to interrupt him. Urahara and Mayuri were staring at the readout from their device with rapt attention.

Uryu's danger senses were going off full time. From his experience with machinery and Urahara in general, whenever something designed by the man starts to act funny bad things soon follow. Slowly edging away from the two scientists he asked, "What is going on Urahara?"

Urahara scratched the back of his neck as his eyes followed the stream of information on the screen, "How shall I put this delicately? When I had you test the machine it took a sample of your individual spiritual energy as a marker of sorts."

"Sampled?" Harribel growled. The air in the room was beginning to feel slightly electrified and while it wasn't noticeable to the other occupants she could inherently feel the change. She did not like it one bit.

"It was standard procedure. In order to make sure the barrier could prevent every type of spiritual being from passing through the machine needed to have a marker of sorts to compare spiritual energy against. What I didn't expect, and find quite remarkable, was for the machine to combine the samples into one large lump."

The choice of words seemed odd to Ichigo, "Lump?"

"Let me put it into words that your small brain can understand," Mayuri said with a small amount of panic in his voice, "What we have here is an experimental device that has somehow managed to merge samples from four very different spiritual beings into one new type. If we weren't all in danger of being blown into oblivion I would find this most fascinated and dedicate time to studying it."

"Perhaps if we reverse the charge running through the barrier generator it would start the automatic shutdown of the system?" Urahara offered as he attempted to shut down the machine only for a large expulsion of sparks to dissuade him from trying.

"And risk having a massive feedback loop at the moment the current switches?"

"I'm afraid to ask, but is the barrier supposed to be turning green?" Ichigo asked.

"Of course not. Why would you ask that?"

True enough the once invisible barrier had turned a translucent shade of green that appeared to be getting darker as time passed. As it began to emit small pulses of energy everyone began to back up away from it. Everyone that is, except for Kenpachi.

"I don't know about the rest of you," Hitsugaya offered, "But should we be standing this close to this machine?"

Almost as if fate was waiting for someone to say those exact words the green barrier let out a series of high pitched whines before pulsing outwards and encompassing the entire room. After a couple of moments of the room being bathed in the eerie green light it shattered leaving the room the way it was before.

Urahara groaned as he found himself facedown on the floor. Whatever had just happened hit him hard enough to actually crack the floor and potentially break his nose. Pulling himself to his knees he found the room swimming around him, "Oh boy…"

"That is the understatement of the century," Mayuri sneered from somewhere behind him. Risking a glance back Urahara managed to see that Mayuri's arm was most likely broken.

As he slowly regained control over his senses, Urahara pushed himself off the ground, "Well I didn't expect that at all. My reputation as a scientist is going to take a hit from this."

"Your reputation?" Mayuri shouted, "We could have blown up half of the Seireitei and the worst thing is that we don't know how that even happened! Nothing in the schematics could have allowed for such a phenomenon!"

"Hey Mayuri I think we have a slightly bigger problem…"

"What are you blabbering about-"

He was quickly cut off as he became aware of the situation. The room, which was once filled with seven people, now contained just the two of them. Even if they were to have left through the ruined door, courtesy of Kenpachi, their spiritual pressure should have still been felt but no matter how much he tried he could not sense a single one of the five missing people. Whatever had just happened caused them to disappear without a trace.

"So we somehow create a teleporter while not even trying. And to think I spent fifteen years failing to purposely build one," Mayuri stated with a slightly subdued sneer, "Don't give me that look Urahara. This may not be as big a deal as it seems. We just need to take the machine back to my lab and replicate the initial conditions in reverse to bring them back."

"That would be a good idea if the machine wasn't gone."

The two stared at the charred spot on the floor where the device had been but a moment ago. After a minute of silence Urahara turned to Mayuri, "I think this is a good time to take a sabbatical from the Soul Society. At least until the captain-commander doesn't want to kill us anymore."

"Agreed. I do still have that lab in Hueco Mundo. I suppose I could have Nemu send my equipment there."

As plans were being made and escape routes determined a female voice called out from the door, "Oh wow, the door is broken." The two men shuddered and turned around to find Rangiku Matsumoto, lieutenant of the Tenth Division, staring at the broken entrance.

"Hey there Captain Kurotsuchi have you seen my captain? He said something about going to see you for some business but I see he's not here. Do you know when he will be back? The paperwork is starting to pile up and if he doesn't come back soon I'll have to do it. Oh, that reminds me! The captain-commander is interested in whatever you are doing here and told me to tell you he will be here in a few minutes."

Rangiku blinked owlishly when she noticed the two scientists staring blindly into space before fainting, "What?"


	2. Chapter 2

_Here is the second chapter of the story. I find that having a new cast of characters is refreshing because it allows me to focus on new things. There are several things that I have decided to change to suite my story. First of all Vol'jin will not be speaking like he does in the game. I have tried to do so but I cannot do him justice so I have kept the accent to a minimum in order to keep his speech clear and concise. As always if I make a mistake let me know. Shout out to __**Undead Assassin **__for finding several grammatical mistakes in the last chapter including a repeated paragraph._

_As always thank you to the following readers for the reviews to my last chapter: Tarrangar, Undead Assassin, Zaralann, ichko, Daval Prestor, Rei Rusuragi, A simple fool, Lord-of-Change, Baron von Nobody, saddas74, kinglugia, reality deviant, Infinite Freedom, NIX'S WARDEN, Transcendent Being Fan, bob115, ultima-ower._

_Chapter 2 Edited: July 8, 2013_

_Nearly 1,000 words added to this chapter. I rewrote most of the beginning segment as well as some of Vol'jin's dialogue. I think I can do his manner of speech justice and will attempt to keep him in character as much as possible. I did some more research on the nature of the twisting nether and realized I make several canonical errors about its behavior and appearance in this chapter. However, most of the new work is in the Horde section and it includes a new introduction for Sylvanas and an entirely new ending to the chapter. Expect the edits to Chapter 3 to come out within a day or two of this revised chapter_

**1. ichko - I will not spoil the story but I can say that you will not be disappointed. As for the time frame for when they arrive it is somewhere around the end of 'Classic' WoW (The First Fall of Naxxramas) and the beginning of the Burning Crusades. I find that starting around that point allows me to build up my characters in such a way that they 'fit in' to the world at large and are not just overpowered one-shot kill fighters. Where would the fun be in reading a story like that?**

**2. Davel Prestor - The bleach story so far. Ichigo loses powers after fighting Aizen and takes around a two-year vacation. Gets bored and goes to a group known as Xcution to get his powers back. Stuff happens and he is a shinigami again. That about sums it up without spoiling anything important in the manga.**

**3. Lord-of-Change – Thank you. I appreciate it. I always aim to improve my writing.**

**4. Infinite Freedom - Toshiro Hitsugaya and Kenpachi Zaraki.**

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**Journey of Spirits**

**Chapter 2: A Series of Meetings**

The twisting nether, which all mages and warlocks drew their power from, was the ethereal plane that connected every world in the infinite universe to each other. Unlike the Great Dark beyond, which stretched into infinity and could be viewed by simply looking up into the night sky, the twisting nether was a phantasmal dimension that existed outside the realm of perception with intangible boundaries and subjective physical laws. Those that somehow manage to find their way into the twisting nether would find that the laws of reality they had become accustomed to have become subjective and bend to the mind and will of the traveler.

This breakdown of the laws of reality within the eldritch dimension is what allowed the creation of teleportation and other transportation spells. By having the mage cut a hole into the nether, they are able to send an object or even another sentient being through the twisting nether and to another location almost instantaneously no matter the distance between both points. There is, however, one inherent danger that most senior mages and warlocks take care to avoid at all costs.

It is on the magic currents that ebb and flow through the twisting nether that the majority of the demons composing the Burning Legion are not simply born, but brought into existence. It is a common misconception that demons are inherently evil when the dimension they exist in has not need for such trivial things as morality. Demons are intelligent and use what knowledge they have for their own uses, most often to wreak havoc against the weak and vulnerable.

Most demons have what can be called a sixth sense when it comes to sensing mana. In the twisting nether demons can sense a source of mana and track it over large distances without fail and converge upon the hapless source with surprising ferocity and strength. Demons are not known to shy away from any strong source of mana even to the point of self-preservation but on this day nearly every demon was explicitly avoiding a particular area of the twisting nether with a passion rarely seen.

Correction, they were avoiding something moving rather _rapidly_ through the twisting nether.

Most of the inhabitants of the twisting nether are naturally sensitive to changes in the nether. They need to be to avoid falling prey to the more dangerous creatures and demons. With demons able to drain mana from a victim with but a touch, prudence and caution are amongst the most vital traits one can have. Larger and more powerful demons exuded an aura of malice that dissuades potential attackers from approaching them. It is because of this ability that Sargeras, the fallen titan and leader of the Burning Legion, managed to grow his army so quickly and successfully. By only taking the demons that are able to approach him despite the massive aura of fear surrounding him, he is assured leaders and generals that will not buckle under pressure or at the first sign of trouble.

If Sargeras moving through the nether could be compared to a tsunami, then whatever was currently blazing through the dimension was more akin to a massive speeding bullet. Sargeras's movements were slow and deliberate in order to limit the amount of beings that died from simply being in his presence but this was not due to something like pity or compassion. He was simply trying to not waste potential resources and fodder. Every demon that he inadvertently killed was one demon that he could not throw at a world's defenses. If there was one thing that remained of his life as a titan it was his sense of practicality.

Whatever the disturbance was it did not have any need to avoid destroying everything in its path as it shot through the nether. Demons and other creatures hurried to move out of the way or risk being vaporized upon contact. Suddenly something shot out from the front of the object as an incredible speed and impacted against the nether surrounding a single planet. It spread out upon making contact into a green layer of potent mana, blanketing the planet and temporarily cutting it off from the twisting nether.

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Bolvar Fordragon swirled the glass in his hand while he stared absentmindedly over the city of Stormwind. As the sun began to emerge from the dark clouds that had blanketed the skies he could begin to hear the sounds of people leaving their homes. The persistent rain and cold weather that had plagued the city for the last two weeks had begun to clear up late the previous day but not before ruining a minor portion of this years harvest.

"_All in all,"_ he thought taking a sip from his glass, _"__This day isn't looking too bad. Still, it is a shame that Katrana came down with the flu yesterday. She was looking forward to this conference__."_

Katrana Prestor, the other advisor to the young king-in-waiting Anduin Wrynn, had fallen ill the previous morning. For all her boasting that she never had fallen sick in her life she still fell prey to the flu that had swept Stormwind over the past few weeks. Bolvar was just glad that this strain didn't seem to kill those it affected.

He chuckled as he remembered going to her chambers when she failed to appear this morning. When he found her lying and coughing in a miserable heap of blankets it was such a contrast to her usual behavior that he did not know what to say or do. When she had finally noticed him in her room and glared at him he realized that if he stayed any longer he would suffer a living hell when she recovered.

"Perhaps that would be worth it," he joked to himself.

"Lord Fordragon!"

Bolvar was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of his name. Turning his head he saw a guard captain standing in the doorway at attention. He shook his head to clear his mind, "At ease captain. What is it?"

The captain lowered his arm and relaxed his posture, "You wanted me to inform you when the leaders of the Alliance arrived in the city."

That was a bit of news. He didn't expect any of them to arrive until at least the afternoon, "Yes I did."

"Lady Tyrande of Darnassus was just seen disembarking _The Bravery_ at the docks. I have ordered several of my men to escort her to the keep since this is her first time in Stormwind."

"Excellent thinking captain. I shall prepare myself for her arrive. Is there any news from the dwarves or gnomes?"

"The last communication from Ironforge said that Magni Bronzebeard and Geblin Mekkatorque departed on the Deeprun Tram over an hour ago."

"Very well then. Inform me when they have arrived. You are dismissed captain."

"Yes Lord Bolvar."

Alone perhaps for the last time in a while Bolvar finished the rest of his wine and looked back out the window. "Where are you Varian? The alliance is fracturing all around me and there is little I can do to stop it. With the Defias encroaching from the east and orcs to the west the city that you loved so much is slowly being destroyed."

A commotion out in the halls followed by a loud roar brought Bolvar back to reality. Hand on the sword strapped to his side he carefully made his way to the door and put his ear to it.

"You can not bring your beast into the keep!"

Another roar sounded before a female voice responded, "Do you intend to stop me?"

Realizing with a sigh who was out there Bolvar opened the door and found himself witness to a strange sight. The purple skinned leader of the night elves was standing in the hall accompanied by what appeared to be a very large frostsaber. She was calmly stroking its fur with a look of bored amusement on her face. Surrounding her with their weapons drawn were over a dozen keep guards with most of them looking extremely nervous at what appeared to be a sadistic grin from the frostsaber. When the creature growled, causing one of the less brave guards to trip and fall trying to move away, Bolvar realized he had seen enough.

"Stand down men!" he shouted to gather everyone's attention, "This is Lady Tyrande, leader of the night elves. She is an honored guest and is to be treated as such. Lady Tyrande, I know that your…companion is precious to you but I cannot have a frostsaber run loose in the keep. It might scare the nobles. Would it be acceptable if he was put into the royal stables until the conference is over?"

"Ash'alah is not male Bolvar," her ethereal voice responded, drifting through the air as she gave the frostsaber an affectionate pet, "and you may refer to me as Tyrande. We are the leaders of our respective people and are therefore on equal footings. As for your suggestion, I find it acceptable. Ash'alah will not trouble your men."

Bolvar mentally let out a sigh of relief before motioning for a couple of guards to safely bring Ash'alah to the royal stables. The frostsaber growled at the armored men but when she looked at Tyrande, who gave the beast a small nod, she snorted and followed the guards. When the diplomatic crisis was finally averted Bolvar turned to the side and allowed Tyrande to gracefully walk past him into the room.

"I must admit I did not expect for you take charge," Tyrande commented as soon as Bolvar closed the door, "During my brief encounter with Varian I was convinced he would remain in power for a number of years."

"Varian disappeared some time ago during a trip to Theramore. We have not been able to find him or even confirm that he is dead."

"That is a shame. He always seemed more open-minded than most humans. Perhaps when we are done here I could spare a few of my rangers to help look. They are among the best trackers in the Alliance."

Bolvar might not have met the night elf leader before this day but she was a lot more open and friendly that Varian has described from his goodwill mission for the Alliance. From what the king had said she was blunt and suspicious of any outsiders and was only willing to allow him into Darnassus only after he gave up all his weapons.

"I take it your voyage from Darnassus was uneventful?"

The night elf leader sighed into her hand, "It went as well as can be expected. Fandral was adamant that I do not attend under the argument that the needs of my people outweigh the alliance. I do not disagree with him but he doesn't see that what is happening on Azeroth is more important than the continued isolationism of the night elves."

Bolvar had heard about the archdruid from Varian but the king hadn't actually said anything bad about the man, "Let us hope that he comes around eventually."

"Yes, let us," she repeated with a lot less enthusiasm then he expected, "I take it I am the first one to arrive?"

"Magni Bronzebeard and Gelbin Mekkatorque should be arriving from Ironforge within the next hour."

Tyrande nodded and sat down at the sole table that took up the majority of the room. Resting her head in the palm of her hand she closed her glowing eyes and sighed. She would never admit it but the trip from Darnassus really took a lot out of her. One would think that the high priestess and leader of the night elves wouldn't get seasick but they would be wrong. Usually she took mage portals to travel to foreign lands like every other night elf, which was one of the few things she trusted mages with, but something strange had happened the previous day that had disrupted and took down all the portals connecting the cities together.

She had not found out about the portals going down until one of her priestesses had come to her complaining about the mages not allowing anyone to leave. Distrustful of the arcane wielders herself, she decided to have a word with the mages. When she asked them why they weren't allowing her people to leave she got a harsh response from the mage in charge about how nothing they were doing could get the portals back online. He said it was almost as if a wave of ultra-condensed mana hit the entire planet of Azeroth at once.

Such a prospect terrified the priestess to no end. Tyrande could still remember the last time such a large quantity of mana had impacted Azeroth from the twisting nether and that was back during the War of the Ancients. She would do anything to avoid that happening again. The mage apparently saw her reaction and quickly assured her that whatever had happened was not intentional. The mana was too spread out to have been purposefully sent and would quickly evaporate into Azeroth's atmosphere or back into the twisting nether itself. Until then using portals was both unwise and dangerous.

"…and that was when he realized the sprocket he was using was a five-eighths and not an eleventh-sixteenths!"

Bolvar looked away from the window and Tyrande's eyes opened as the voice drew closer. Within moments the door to the room opened and the leaders of the dwarves and gnomes walked in. Nearly identical in terms of height, the two diminuative leaders couldn't have been any different. Gelbin Mekkatorque, the current high tinkerer of the gnomes, was a brilliant inventor and engineer who had cranked out dozens of high-quality and cutting edge inventions that helped to improve the Alliance in many ways. Magni Bronzebeard, the leader of the Ironforge dwarves, was a affable and polite man who viewed practically over aesthetics and would have clashes with Gelbin when the gnome wanted to replace a currently fine machine with an upgrade and untested new model.

The reagent quickly walked over to the two men and offered his hand without lowering his head. While dwarves and gnomes were much shorter then humans or night elves they did not like to be constantly reminded about it and found it offensive when humans lowered their heads.

"Magni! Gelbin! I'm glad you two could make it. Was the tram enjoyable?"

"Enjoyable you ask," Magni snorted while stroking his beard, "The tram may be a testament to the engineering skills of the gnomes but I cannot stand to ride that thing. Honestly, who runs a tunnel under several hundred feet of water with only glass separating you from being crushed to death? Glass has no protective qualities at all! If it weren't for necessity I would never take it."

"As I've told you a dozen times Magni the water adds an aesthetic quality to it," Mekkatorque quietly argued, "Wouldn't you find it boring to ride through a dark tunnel for over an hour?"

"Never."

Mekkatorque let out a groan and turned to Bolvar, "Please forgive him. It's been a long morning."

"Don't worry about it," Bolvar said, "I've asked the kitchens to bring up our finest alcohol. Please take a seat so we can get started."

Bolvar waited until the two leaders had sat down before he started speaking, "I don't need to say it but Azeroth has had more than its' share of dangers in the past fifteen months. We have had to deal with everything including an enraged fire lord, the Dragons of Nightmare, the son of Deathwing himself, Hakkar the Soulflayer and the old god dwelling beneath Ahn'Qiraj. Half of those crises would not have been resolved without at least partial help from the Horde."

He thought he heard a derisive snort from Tyrande. Bolvar knew about the tension between the night elves and the Horde but decided against mentioning it, " If there has been anything good to come out of these battles it is that we have never been more prepared for an invasion. That does not mean we are ready."

"I find the number of dangers and evil forces disconcerting," Magni said with a perplexed look, "I have been alive for quite a while and until the Third War we didn't have much to worry about except for the orcs. Even if we were to have eventually fought all of them at some point it shouldn't have been in such a short amount of time."

"I am afraid that it gets worse Magni. Several weeks ago the Scourge necropolis Naxxramas appeared over Stratholme in the Eastern Plaguelands. In fear of what happened during the Third War guilds from both the Alliance and Horde investigated. When they arrived they found nothing had changed, Naxxramas appeared to be locked down from the inside. That all changed two days ago."

Bolvar dropped a stack of reports on the table and allowed the three to look at them, "Undead started pouring out of Naxxramas as well as several other points around the world. Whatever fiend created this plan was cunning. From what limited intelligence we were able to gather the Scourge had living members of the Cult of the Dead bring necrotic shards to certain areas that would activate and summon dozens of undead upon a simple command. These shards have an effective summoning radius of almost half a kilometer."

Tyrande was perplexed by the scope of the attack, "What about the Argent Dawn? Aren't they supposed to have been ready for something like this?"

"Taken down in the first attack," Bolvar sadly said, "The Scourge went after them first and forced them to fall back to Light Hope's Chapel. I don't know their current state but they lost almost half of their forces just repelling the first assault back to Naxxramas. If they don't get help soon I am quite certain they will not last a second assault. It will be an all-out massacre. And without a presence in the plaguelands we will no longer have any eyes on the Scourge. They will be able to move their forces with complete secrecy."

"Let's not beat around the wrench," Mekkatorque said, "We are looking at this from the perspective of a builder when we need to break it down into the schematics."

Magni, who had been around the high tinkerer long enough to understand the gnome's strange euphemisms, asked, "What is your plan?"

"I'm glad you asked. While the overarching problem is Naxxramas we will not be able to do anything with those necrotic shards releasing undead throughout the world. The large-scale assault required would leave our backs exposed to an ambush. Do you have a map of their locations Bolvar?"

Bolvar looked through the stack of papers until he found what he was looking for. Unrolling it and revealing it to be a map he pointed out to several locations circled in red, "There are six places that are currently under attack by the Scourge. There are shards in the Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands, Tanaris, Azshara, the Barrens, and Winterspring."

"What is with this seventh spot Bolvar?" Mekkatorque asked glancing to the southwest corner of the map.

"That was the location of another necrotic shard. However I was informed yesterday that the combined efforts of an Alliance and Horde guild managed to destroy it using an innovative combination of goblin and gnome engineering to create what they referred to as a 'mana bomb.' The shard summoned so many undead to defend it that they were forced to use draconian methods to achieve victory. Both guilds lost most of their forces in the assault but in doing so they have cleared the undead out of Silithus."

Tyrande's glowing eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms, "I believe that we can ignore the shards that have appeared in the Barrens, Tanaris and Azshara."

Bolvar choked for a second in surprise. He honestly did not expect the amount of venom in Tyrande's voice, "Do explain your logic Tyrande."

"As you can see those three areas are either within Horde territory or are closely associated with them. If we attempt to send Alliance forces to take out those shards the Horde could see it as an act of war and attack us. Those aggressive savages will look for any excuse to destroy us all," she spat out. After closing her eyes and composing herself she continued, "However, that does not mean I expect for them to be wiped out by the undead. I do not like to admit it but they can easily take care of their own problems."

Bolvar wanted to argue with her about her lack of empathy for the innocent people that would inevitably be killed in the crossfire but for some reason he held his tongue. He realized that for him to argue with her would be similar to a child arguing with their grandparents about the world. His conceptions and believes would seem idealistic and opportunistic to her. She probably experienced everything that he experienced throughout his life several dozen times.

"That was rather cruel coming from you Tyrande," Magni remarked, "But you do have a point. If we spread our forces too thinly the undead will run us ragged before we can even get to Naxxramas. If we leave those three to Thrall and his Horde then we only have three areas to focus on besides the plaguelands.

"How do you suppose we divide our troops?" Mekkatorque asked.

Tyrande frowned in thought; "We should do it by proximity while working in conjunction with the guilds. Most of the guilds have their members spread around the planet. If we were to send out a call to arms they could get to where we need them rather quickly. Most of them have probably already heard rumors of what's happening."

She looked over the map in front of her and jabbed her finger on a particular spot, "Winterspring is a three hour gryphon flight from Darkshore. If we finish before this evening I could have my sentinels and rangers there within two days."

Mekkatorque nodded in agreement, "Smart thinking Tyrande. If that is our plan the Searing Gorge will be the responsibility of Ironforge. There are a lot of untapped mineral deposits and lost technology there that we could never retrieve due to the danger. Theoretically speaking Magni, if you mobilized as soon as we returned to Ironforge how long will it take to get to the Searing Gorge?"

The dwarf king scratched his beard, "Theoretically? If Stonewrought Pass was completely open I can say about five hours after mobilization."

The gnome hummed, "I suppose I could send some of my tinkerers with them in case we need to create another one of those mana bombs. Can Stormwind handle the Blasted Lands by themselves Bolvar?"

Bolvar nodded, "I sent out the first troops yesterday backed up by mages and priests. With any luck they are already at Nethergarde Keep. Unfortunately without Katrana here I cannot authorize the full use of the army but I will use as much as I can."

"It is strange that Lady Prestor is absent," Tyrande questioned, "You would think that a meeting of this magnitude would have made her come, sick or not,"

"I agree," Bolvar admitted, "But then again the flu did hit her particularly hard. She would be in no condition to deliberate or attend in her condition."

Tyrande's glowing eyes stared at him and Bolvar began to feel uncomfortable. After a moment she broke the contact and moved to leave, "I thank you for the information you have shared with us Bolvar. Hopefully we can use it to push back the undead. I will return to Darnassus with haste to mobilize my people."

Magni stood up with a loud yawn, "I suppose we should head back to Ironforge. Preparing such a large endeavor on short notice is a logistic nightmare. Plus making the guilds aware of our efforts will be troublesome. A lot of them are quite independent and will not take kindly to working under the alliance directly."

"They will have to live with it," Bolvar forcefully said, "This is not a time for them to be childish but I can see their reasoning. When we send out the notices make sure the guilds are aware that while they will follow our general orders the way they accomplish them is at their discretion. After all, several minds thinking together can come up with more plans then a single person."

Bolvar stood at attention until the three leaders left to head back to their respective cities. The moment the door close he slumped down in the closest chair and rubbed his forehead. He did not honestly expect them to take the news so well. Magni and Mekkatorque sending their armies out in tandem with the guilds was a given. They were never ones to forestall on an issue. The big surprise was Tyrande offering as much as she did. He wholeheartedly expected her to offer nothing but token support but, he realized grimly, she was probably offering to help so much because Winterspring is ancient night elf territory. Tyrande did not want it to fall into the defiling hands of the Scourge.

"_If her people weren't threatened directly by the Scourge would she have offered help or just sat back and waited to see what happened?"_

Standing up he began to make his way back to the throne room. There were several delegates from the surrounding territories all vying for military and economical aid and without Katrana there to work her political magic it all rested on him. As his hand reached back and pulled the door shut Bolvar failed to see the quick flash of green light illuminating the walls of the room in an eerie glow before dying as quickly as it appeared.

By the voices coming from the courtyard below it seems that he was the only one that did.

* * *

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* * *

Orgrimmar, the capital city of the Horde and heartland of orc territory on Azeroth, was strangely deserted. The city, which was usually bustling with day traders and merchants as well as a couple of guilds resting in between missions was in the midsts of an intense dust storm that had enveloped Durotar under a thick blanket of dust and dirt. The normally hardy races were forced to either stay indoors or bundle themselves under layers of clothing to avoid choking or being blinded by the storm.

Inside Grommash Hold the leader of the Horde, Thrall, vigilantly stood watching the entrance, "She is late."

Cairne Bloodhoof shrugged, "Perhaps she was delayed by the storm. It is one of the worst I've ever seen and you know it's bad when the goblins shut down the zeppelins until it passes. And with the mage portals not working we may have to postpone this meeting."

Standing against the wall to Thrall's left was Vol'jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls, "If I know Sylvanas, there be nothing that can stop her."

"Why are we waiting here when our people need us Thrall?" Cairne asked with a touch of impatience in his voice, "Every minute that we stand here the undead are defiling our land."

"I know that you are upset Cairne but unless we figure out a plan on how to stop the undead invasion at the source then it would only be a temporary solution."

"I…you are right Thrall. I apologize for my outburst."

A wave of magic swept through the hold causing the three leaders to turn around to face it. In the middle of the throne room the light seemed to die down until it completely disappeared save for the small areas around the torches lining the walls. As they watched a green and purple sigil similar to that of demonic summoning spells used by warlocks spun into existence on the ground. Thrall was about to order the Kok'kron to attack when he recognized the script on the sigil as Thalassian.

When guards started to stream into the room to confront the intruder he held up a hand to stop them, "Stand down Kok'kron. This is an expected guest."

The sigil expanded outwards while sparking with a mixture of death and black magic. Before their very eyes a slender arm appeared out of the ground and gripped the edge of the portal. Within moments the rest of the figure had pulled herself out of the portal, which burst in a blast of green light. Standing in the middle of his throne room was a woman clad in form fitting armor in shades of brown and gray that left most of her stomach and arms exposed. As she gathered her surroundings, her pallid blue skin, deathly pale hair, and glowing red eyes denoted her rebirth at the hands of the Lich King. This woman was Sylvanas Windrunner, the leader of the forsaken and one of the most skilled rangers on Azeroth.

"I am glad you were able to make it Sylvanas," Thrall greeted her, "But how did you teleport here?"

Sylvanas brushed some dust off her shoulders and pulled down the hood that was casting her face in the shadows. When she spoke her deathly calm voice echoed throughout the room, "It is within my power to travel through the Realm of Shadows. I do not usually use it since Arthas is able to sense my presence within the realm but this meeting is quite important so the benefits outweighed the risks. Let us get started, I do not like to leave Varimathras in charge of my city for any length of time."

"I am sorry if I caused you to risk your life Sylvanas," Thrall apologized.

"We should get started as soon as possible Warchief," Vol'jin's heavily accented voice said from across the room.

Thrall nodded, "Sylvanas, have you ever heard of something called 'Naxxramas'?"

The dark lady perked up, her red eyes narrowing to slits as she recalled nightmarish memories. Her hands clenched as she spoke, "Naxxramas…is a place where the living dare not dwell and where the dead do not sleep. It is an ancient Nerubian ziggurat that was repurposed by the Scourge into a seat of military power. The Lich King's most powerful soldiers patrol the halls and in the very center of the necropolis is Kel'Thuzad. Why do you ask Thrall?"

The Warchief let out a sigh; "Yesterday I received a missive from Jaina Proudmoore. Bolvar Fordragon has called a summit of the leaders of the Alliance in response to the undead invasion plaguing Azeorth. You are all aware of the rumors concerning ghouls and skeletons appearing where there has never been a Scourge presence. The Alliance feels it is a serious enough matter that they can no longer leave it in the hands of the guilds."

"A wise decision by the human," Cairne complemented, "It is always better to deal with the undead sooner rather than later lest they gather their strength."

"How does this have to do with Naxxramas?" Sylvanas demanded.

"The dread citadel Naxxramas has appeared over the Eastern Plaguelands."

Grommash Hold became deathly silent as everyone tried to find the proper words to say. Truth be told none of them were expecting something of this magnitude to have happened, especially so soon after the battle against the Qiraji in Sililithus and the slaying of C'Thun. Out of the three it was Sylvanas who appeared to be the most shocked. Whether it was from fear or perhaps astonishment no one knew but it soon turned to pure rage and hatred as the bazaars around them began to dim even though the fires were burning as brightly as ever. When she finally did speak it was only one word and it contained all the unadulterated rage in her undead soul.

"Arthas…"

"You were not aware of this Sylvanas?" Cairne asked, surprise evident in his voice. The Eastern Plaguelands were right on the borders of forsaken territory. The fact that she did not know about it was mystifying.

The palpable rage surrounding the banshee queen seemed to die down at Cairne's question, "I was completely unaware that such a large threat had appeared on my doorstep. I intend to find out why my dark rangers and scouts failed to spot what was literally right in front of them. It will be a painful process but oh so satisfying."

"It is troubling that you were unaware of this Sylvanas but there is more. Vol'jin and I have managed to pinpoint the precise method the undead are appearing in this random spots."

The darkspear troll shambled over to the others while speaking, "It be part of the reason why we had you come by zeppelin before the storm hit Cairne."

"I figured as much if the urgency in your letter was anything to go by Thrall," Cairne confessed. The elder tauren leader was deeply in touch with the Earthmother and would walk across the fertile ground whenever given the chance. The fact that he had a slight fear of flying was not important.

"Our scouts found something in the north of the Barrens near the entrance to the Ashenvale woods. It be a necrotic shard."

Sylvanas pursed her lips. She was very well aware of necrotic shards and their insidious purpose. What better way to surprise an enemy then to plant summoning stones behind enemy lines that can teleport massive amounts of undead at once?

The elder tauren stomped a hoof in outrage, "Are you saying that there is one of these things defiling our sacred land? Why hasn't it been destroyed?"

"It be not that easy," Vol'jin cautioned while throwing pieces of something onto the table. Cairne was shocked to see that it was the shattered remains of a dark iron axe, the weapon of choice for the Kor'kron Guard.

"The enemy is devious and cruel. Whenever the living be coming within a certain distance it summons enough undead to overwhelm them. The more living that approaches the greater the number of undead that is summoned. But when the living be coming for a fight…"

Vol'jin was cut off as Thrall spoke up, "The reports from the survivors may shed some light. They claim that they first encountered undead just north of the Crossroads. The closer they got to the shard the more powerful the undead they fought."

"Then we need to hit them hard and fast with overwhelming numbers," Sylvanas stated, "Despite evidence to the contrary the Scourge does have a limited number of undead. If Arthas senses the cost of protecting a shard to be too high he will abandon it. We need to destroy the shard quickly enough so that we will not be outnumbered within minutes."

"Just how many of these shards have been found Thrall?" Cairne asked.

"Six."

"Six?" Vol'jin asked, a frown marring his face, "I thought there be seven?"

"It came in after you left yesterday Vol'jin," Thrall explained, "An urgent missive from the Cenarion Circle that explained what happened. When the necrotic shard in Silithus activated there were two guilds in the area, one from the Alliance and the other Horde, which were hunting down the remaining Qiraji leaders. They were completely surprised when the undead appeared and suffered immense initial casualties before fleeing back to Cenarion Hold where they were under siege for several hours. It took both guilds everything they had and more of their men to create something that they call a 'mana bomb' which they promptly used to destroy the shard."

"It is heartwarming to see the Alliance and Horde working together without fearing getting stabbed in the back," Cairne noted with a sagely nod. Unlike the other Horde races the tauren were more peaceful and in touch with nature, much like the night elves. If a member of the Alliance were to come to them with an offer for aid against a common foe it was more than likely they would receive help.

How many died?"

Thrall looked at Sylvanas with a mixture of surprise and anger, "Is that important?"

"If we want a plan to get rid of them it is," she responded with a shrug.

"Over three quarters of them died."

"Interesting. While it is a pity that so many promising warriors were lost they did manage to gather valuable intelligence about the undead invasion before they died, information that we can use to limit our own casualties. We now know just how powerful the undead spawned are, how fast they can be summoned as well as how much force is needed to destroy the shards. I call this a win."

Vol'jin looked at Sylvanas with astonishment, "You be calling over forty dead men and women a victory?"

"If it allows us to win in the next battle then yes."

"If we may stop squabbling and get back onto the task at hand," Cairne interjected, "We have bigger problems to worry about at the moment. The first order of business should be figuring out how to destroy all six shards without the undead overrunning our forces."

Vol'jin let out a throaty sigh, "I hate to be suggesting it but we should focus within our own lands."

"Explain yourself Vol'jin," Thrall demanded.

"If this Jaina be as trustworthy as you say then the Alliance will be taking care of their own territory. But even with only three places it will stretch our forces out."

"What to you propose?"

"We be informing the guilds. They must already know what be happening and some probably tried to act. Since we have not heard anything back from them apart from Silithus they must have failed. We need to work together with the guilds. They be having resources we do not."

A sly grin adorned Sylvanas's face. Doing anything to cause damage to the Scourge always left her feeling giddy. It was one of the few positive emotions she retained in her undead state, "Boldly stated Vol'jin but unfortunately with the portals down I will not be able to send a large number of forsaken to Kalimdor. The best I can do is sending some of my dark rangers for reconnaissance. I assure you that they will not be detected by these shards."

"Much appreciated Sylvanas," Thrall said, "But if Naxxramas is really as dangerous as you claim your people are the closest. I want you to keep an eye on the plaguelands for any sign of movement by the undead. We cannot afford to be taken off guard by a surprise offensive."

Sylvanas gave a small bow, "As you wish Thrall.

"Is there any news on the reason the portals are not working?" Cairne asked changing the subject, "I may be in touch with nature but I am not a druid."

Thrall seemed pensive but did not answer. It was apparent that whatever was on his mind was something that he himself did not truly understand or comprehend. After a minute of silence he responded to the chieftain, "I have asked the spirits that very question but they have been silent."

"They do not respond?"

"You are mistaken Cairne. It is not that they do not speak to me, it is that they do not know what is happening. Whatever is going on is beyond their vast knowledge and wisdom. All I have been able to find out is that this had not happened in all of Azeroth's history."

"My mages found something that might help shed some light on what is happening Thrall," Sylvanas offered, "They claim an enormous amount of mana slammed into Azeroth from the twisting nether, disrupting all dimensional and teleportation magic."

"The cause?" Thrall asked.

"Unknown."

Thrall frowned at this information but it did make sense as to why the spirits could not help him. The twisting nether was beyond their reach after all, "Is this temporary?"

She nodded, "By their accounts it should not last for more than another day."

Cairne snorted before clapping Thrall on the shoulder in a sign of respect, "Back onto the topic at hand. You can count on the tauren to start heading to the Mulgore border. I will not allow the undead to corrupt our lands. The Earthmother watch over you."

"I thank you old friend. While you gather your people I will do the same. Azshara is a peaceful place and I intend to make sure it stays that way. The Scourge will fear the day it decided to insult Orgrimmar and the Horde for daring to threaten our people. Vol'jin, do you still have contacts in the Steamwheedle Cartel?" At the nod Thrall continued, "Gadgetzan is the closest settlement to the shard in Tanaris. I need you to get your contacts to pass us information about it. The sooner the better."

"Yes Warchief."

"Before you all leave there is the matter of Naxxramas itself. Sylvanas, you know better than any of us that the Lich King will not wait long after we destroy the necrotic shards to change his plans. He might even move Naxxramas back to Northrend. This may be our only chance to deprive him of a great asset. If we are going to pull this off we will need to work together with the Alliance."

The general murmurs of discontent from the other leaders were less than Thrall expected.

Sylvanas was the first to speak and her tone was subdued, "As much as I am loathe to admit it you have a point. While I would like nothing more than to watch the Alliance be destroyed by the Scourge that would only lead to our own defeat in the end as the undead overrun us. The Alliance has resources we do not possess and controls most of the Eastern Kingdoms apart from Lordearon."

"I don't want it to seem that we are too eager to work with the Alliance," Thrall admitted, "Perhaps it would be best for it to come across as a matter of having a common enemy."

"Very well but how do you propose we approach the Alliance?" Cairne asked.

"The same way that I found out about their meeting in the first place. If there is anyone in the Alliance that I can trust to deliver our request it is Jaina."

"I don't know Warchief," Vol'jin cautioned, "I'm not suggesting she can't be trusted. She be delivering a lot of trust over the past few years. It be the people around her that I don't trust. I be sensing hate from several of her underlings whenever you go to Theramore."

Thralls frowned and let out a noise of displeasure, "Hmm, you may have a point. I will see to it that she delivers the message to the leaders of the Alliance personally."

Vol'jin turned to the banshee queen, "Sylvanas, there be anything you can tell us about this Kel'Thuzad?"

She was pensive for a moment before speaking, "There is not much I can tell you about his life before joining the Scourge other then that he was a contemporary of Jaina in Dalaran. Great potential with an aptitude for learning frost magic. Eventually he thirst for knowledge forced him to seek out the forbidden schools of magic. When he was caught practicing necromancy he fled to Northrend and gave his soul to the Lich King. He was eventually slain and raised as a lich in the Sunwell."

Seeing the anger creeping back into her voice Thrall quickly asked, "Does he have any weaknesses we can exploit? Some type of vulnerability that he possesses as a lich?"

She shook her head, "When a mage becomes a lich they transcend mortality. If you strike down a powerful lich they will simply wait and reform at a later time without any loss of power. Kel'Thuzad can simply feign defeat and wait until his attackers leave before reforming his physical body. There is but one way to make Kel'Thuzad mortal again and that is to find and destroy his phylactery."

"Phylactery?" Cairne asked. The term sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place it.

"A phylactery is a soul jar. It contains the soul of the lich. Without it there is nothing tying them to the mortal plane. A lich that has a phylactery will hide it in a hard to find place since it is their one weakness. If we want to take down Kel'Thuzad we need to search his life for clues towards where he might have his phylactery. Jaina Proudmoore would be the best place to start. She is one of the few to have spoken to him for any length of time and is still among the living."

Something Sylvanas said seemed to make Vol'jin recall something, "I remember you be having one of his apprentices raised to undeath a couple of months ago."

She scoffed, "Ah yes Helcular. Several of my agents successfully brought him back to life only for the guards of Southshore to interfere and kill him again. This time they burned his body so any further information he had on his former master was lost forever. The only thing that he managed to pass on before being killed again was that Kel'Thuzad did not trust anyone aside from himself."

"So we be agreeing that finding Kel'Thuzad's phylactery is the priority?"

"Yes," Sylvanas nodded, "I have several rangers who have dealt with weaker liches and their phylacteries. They should be able to give us a head start and where to look."

"Wait a second," Vol'jin muttered, his hand subconsciously picking at one of his tusks, There be something interesting in what you be saying about Kel'Thuzad."

When Sylvanas did not say anything but simply quirked a pale eyebrow the troll continued, "You be saying this man did not trust anyone but these…phylacteries…be a lich's greatest weakness. If I be Kel'Thuzad I would keep me phylactery as close to me body as possible. I be trusting no one."

Thrall's eyes lit up as realization struck, "You have a point Vol'jin. That could help narrow down the search tremendously."

"Why did I not see this earlier?" Sylvanas whispered to herself before turning to her fellow leaders, "The only place a man like Kel'Thuzad would keep his phylactery is on his body deep within the heart of Naxxramas. What better protection is there then thousands of loyal and powerful undead in one of the seats of power for Arthas? We need to take out Naxxramas now more then ever."

"Agreed," Thrall motioned for a Kok'kron guard to bring over a map, "What is the best route to assault the plaugelands?"

As the leaders of the Horde discussed battle plans and ways to infiltrate Naxxramas they were oblivious to the events taking place around them. The timeline that was once set in stone had become fluid and unpredictable, sending the bronze dragonflight deep within the Caverns of Time into a frenzy of confusion. Something was going to arrive on Azeroth very soon but whether it would be for the best or doom them all no one could say for certain.


	3. Chapter 3

_Well, here is the third chapter and the introduction of all my characters. __I tried to avoid the initial boredom and lull of finding yourself suddenly in a new world and basically started this chapter after some time has passed. __I spent many hours proofreading and redoing everything in the chapter just to make sure it was perfect. Several sections, mostly concerning Ichigo, went through several rewrites and plot changes until I managed to settle on what I went with. __As always thank you to the following readers for the reviews to my last chapter: Opinion Giver, Adrian11, Blinded in a bolthole, Baron von Nobody, sidestory, kinglugia, Undead Assassin, saddas74, Infinite Freedom, JIMMYJAMSTER728, ultima-owner, boomghost, and an anonymous guest._

_Chapter 3 Edited: July 8, 2013_

_There wasn't much to add or fix in this chapter apart from grammatical corrections, which really helped me. I only fixed a few things, mostly Uryu's first interaction with the forsaken and Kenpachi's entire introduction. I also revamped Ichigo's conversation with the Night Elf in Stormwind. I did not like what I put down for him and fixed it so it would work out better in the future. So this is three chapters down and only one to go before Chapter 5 is uploaded. I hope you readers are excited about it!_

_**Voidblade6 – Don't worry. I have been spending time freewriting this story and will soon add another chapter.**_

_**General Zargon – Thank you for the compliments. I felt that in an emergency the Horde leadership would try to keep things as simple as possible.**_

_**Transcendent Being Fan – Thank you. New cast means new interactions and behaviors.**_

_**Opinion Giver – I plan on updating a lot more often now that I have inspiration again.**_

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* * *

**Journey of Spirits**

**Chapter 3: Beginnings and Escapades**

_**Undercity**_

The lock opened with a soft click.

Uryu froze at the sound, afraid that it would echo down the stone hallway. Ichigo may have made fun of him for his inclination to sewing but in this case it was he who had the last laugh. Whoever captured him and placed him in this cell had confiscated all his quincy artifacts including the cross he wore on his wrist. What they failed to find was the dozen or so needles lining the inside of his uniform that he used for emergency maintenance but in this case as impromptu lock picks. It had taken almost thirty minutes of and all but two of his needles but he finally managed to pick the tumbles.

He carefully pushed the door open just enough for the light from the torches to reach inside. Glancing out he saw that the hallway his cell was in was clear for the moment. Even knowing that he didn't leave the room. Since he woke up several hours ago he bore witness to the fact that zombies were, in fact, real. He found out the hard way when one of the things that captured him stood outside his cell door and mocked him. The undead, for a lack of a better word escaped Uryu's mind, seemed to think that his expression was one of fear at a 'greater being' but in truth, Uryu was revolted by the piece of cheek swinging back and forth. When he pointed it out, the undead it had growled at him before leaving to go somewhere else.

One hand gripped the edge of the door while his other the needle, as if it would help him against whatever was waiting for him. Uryu had never felt so vulnerable in his life. Whatever this place was it was sapping his ability to mentally call upon his quincy powers. He could literally feel his reiryoku brimming beneath his skin but nothing he could do was able to draw it out. Meditation didn't work and trying to call upon it by force only exhausted him. He spared a quick look at his wrist and remembered that these…undead had taken his quincy cross, most likely as a souvenir. If he could get that back, along with the rest of his stuff, he was fairly certain it would act a conduit for his reiryoku and allow him to call upon his bow.

"Here's hoping that my luck holds out," he whispered as he took his first steps out of his cell and into the corridor.

It was a lot brighter than his cell with torches lining the wall every few dozen feet, giving the hallway an eerie orange and yellow glow. As he fully entered the hall he became aware of just how cramped it was. Barely six feet across and eight feet high it was almost tight enough to induce claustrophobia. Shaking his head to clear out the dizziness he turned around and gently closed the door to his cell. It would be rather bad if he were to escape only for a patrolling guard to walk by and notice the open cell. As the door closed and locked with a quiet click Uryu examined his options.

Turning his head to look both ways down the hall, Uryu could not find any difference in them. Both directions seemed to be equally dark and foreboding. Grumbling in annoyance he decided to just pick a direction and go with it.

"_If worst comes to worst and I hit a dead end I can simply backtrack."_

As he slowly and carefully made his way through the dark corridor Uryu attempted to put his hand on the wall for balance but quickly pulled it away as if struck by lightning. Carefully putting it back on the wall, this time prepared for what was about to happen, he understood that what he was feeling was a sense of wrongness. Perhaps this was why he had only seen that one guard. This place felt so wrong that, while also being guarded by the living dead, those taken prisoner did not have the will to escape.

"_What kind of sick and twisted creatures am I dealing with?"_

He shook his head to clear his mind. He needed to focus on escaping. The psychological aspects of this place could wait until after he escaped. Getting out of his cell was most likely the easiest part, it was attempting to sneak past the guards most likely stationed around this place as well as any other surprises that was the hard part.

A series of voices down the hall caused Uryu to crouch down into the shadows. He was unarmed and unable to use any of his abilities. If that was a patrol coming thing way the best he could do was fight hand-to-hand, a grim prospect. After several minutes passed and the voices did not increase in volume he risked getting closer. Eventually passing around a curve in the hall he came across a door on the outer edge. Noxious green light seemed to spill out from a crack at the bottom of the door, bathing the nearby hall a sickly color. Moving up to the door he was able to make out a conversation between two people, their voices sounding like dried and cracked paper.

The first voice that spoke was male, "This is grunt work. Why did the captain order us to stand around here guarding this level? There is only one prisoner and he isn't going anywhere."

"Shut up," a second nasally female voice replied. To Uryu the second speaker sounded almost the same as Michiru's grandaunt when she had dropped by Karakura Town a few years ago.

"You want to argue about doing nothing, go complain to the dark lady. I'm sure she will have time in her busy schedule to deal with the likes of you."

The male voice grumbled but seemed to deflate in tone, "Just who are these humans anyway?"

"_These?"_ Uryu listened closer. There might be a chance that someone else ended up in this place. If that was the case he needed to know where they were and free them. No one deserved to die someplace like this.

"Beats me," the female replied, "All I know is that the woman killed seventeen of us before she was subdued. Threw several of them through solid stone walls with pure strength."

The male voice seemed shocked, "By the grave, with just her strength?"

"That is why she is kept at the top level in the most secure cell in the prison. No one is getting in to see her. Dark lady's orders. Now if you're going to ask questions and complain why don't you check on the prisoner? I heard he just _loves_ your company."

Thinking quickly Uryu darted past the door and continued until he could duck inside some shadows. Drawing his body into the darkness as far as he could, he watched the door open inward and a male undead walk out. The undead looked around before snorting and shambling with a noticeable limb down the hall that he just came from. After waiting a few minutes to make sure the coast was clear Uryu slowly approached the now open door and peered inside. Sitting at a table with her back to him was a pale and partially decay woman in black leather armor, her dirty black hair clumping together.

"_Ok Uryu, you can do this. It's only the living dead and you don't have any of your quincy artifacts and can't summon your bow. I guess it is time I put the martial arts techniques Tatsuki drilled into my head to good use."_

As has happened to millions of people, plans are often changed at the last minute. While Uryu was stealthily creeping towards the female undead he cringed in annoyance as the male's voice filtered down through he hallway.

"He's gone!"

Uryu had no time to think as the woman turned around and gasped as she saw him literally feet behind her. While she was reaching for her sword he was already in motion. Kicking out he managed to catch one of her legs and force her to move her hand away from her weapon in order to steady herself. Before she was able to recover his hand grabbed the back of her skull and slammed it into the table with an audible crack. Wiping his hand on his pants in disgust he watched her slide to the floor and not get back up. His victory was short lived since the other undead was most likely running back.

Looking around for something to use his eyes came across the woman's sword. He grabbed it and ran to the door. Just as the undead returned he thrust the blade forward through the forsaken's stomach and into the wall behind him. Unfortunately for Uryu, such an injury did little to slow down the forsaken and the undead began to attempt to remove himself from the weapon. Thinking quickly Uryu pinned the undead against the wall by the neck and asked, "Who the hell are you people?"

The forsaken man's glowing yellow eyes glared hatefully at Uryu, "Let go of me living scum!"

"I might consider it," Uryu replied coolly, "If you tell me where the woman that was brought in here was taken."

"You will get nothing out of me! The dark lady will tear your soul asunder as punishment for this transgression against the forsaken!"

Uryu backed away from the undead and thought about his options, _"I may have gotten a lot of useful information but no context to compare it to. I have no idea who this dark lady is or what a forsaken it. I am guessing 'forsaken' may be the name of the undead and the dark lady their leader."_

With the immediate threats to his health incapacitated or trapped Uryu turned back to the room and closed the door behind him. Using a dagger to jam the lock in case the forsaken man freed himself he took a few moments to investigate the room. While the torches burning with the green flames made his a little nervous simply for the fact that such flames aren't possible they did illuminate the room. Aside from a pair of desks, chairs and several weapons haphazardly thrown around the room it looked like just another decrepit chamber. He was about to move on and search through the doors on the other side of the chamber when a fluttering motion on the floor caught his eye. When he picked it up he found it was a letter written in a very crude representation of English with several of the words either misspelled or simply made up. As he read it he was forced to translate it into something he could understand.

_**John,**_

_**I don't know why I bother writing to you in this stupid human language. We're undead now. You should learn to read proper Gutterspeak. Anyway, you know those two humans we found in the courtyard outside Undercity this morning? The Dark Lady found them intriguing. Sent them to the plague dungeon until she could get around to interrogating them herself. Can't wait to hear their screams of pain and agony myself. Just remember to not let anyone, including guards, up to the top floor. That human woman killed too many of us to break out. By the way, took their weird weapons to Gordon Wendham. They seemed really valuable. Might get a couple of gold out of them.**_

_**Laura**_

Uryu stared at the letter before crumpling it up in his hand, "Those bastards are pawning my weapon? They will pay dearly. But it seems that Harribel is here as well and it seems she gave these forsaken quite the hard time."

Putting the note into his pocket for future use Uryu noticed a window at the far end of the room. Cracked and fogged up by potentially years of weathering it hadn't let in enough light for him to notice. After double checking and making sure the female undead wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, he walked over to open the window. Perhaps he would find out just where he was exactly and how he would get out. It took several attempts but eventually Uryu managed to pry open the window.

He could say that he was not expecting an entire subterranean city.

As far as he could see there were undead milling about. Even from this height he could see large lumbering behemoths intermingling with the throngs of creatures outside. Risking sticking his neck out a little further he noticed that it was quite a long drop to the ground, where rivers of a most likely deadly green liquid flowed in between the streets.

"This is bad," he muttered closing the window and leaning against the wall. His whole escape plan was getting more complicated by the minute. He initially thought that this prison or dungeon was somewhere remote. Being in a city filled with beings that defied all notions of life and death was not planned. In fact, he thought with a grimace, for someone that fought the corrupted souls of humans he was taking this quite well.

That was probably some of Ichigo's insanity rubbing off on him he realized, pushing off the wall and heading towards one of the two doors. Opening it, he found himself at the bottom of a long series of curving steps leading up into the dark. After one last look around the room for anything of importance he quickly began to climb up them several steps at a time. He needed to find her and quickly. Every minute that he wasted looking for her was a minute these undead, forsaken he reminded himself, had to regroup and strategize.

* * *

...

* * *

_**Stormwind**_

Consciousness returned to Ichigo slowly but surely. As he opened his eyes he was forced to close them again from the bright sunlight streaming in from the windows. After waiting a few moments for his eyes to adjust he tried to sit up but groaned and lied back on the ground. He had no idea why, but his body felt just like he fought back-to-back duels against Kenpachi. Every single movement he made seemed to aggravate his muscles and nerves.

"I see that you're finally awake Ichigo."

The last dredges of unconsciousness left Ichigo as he recognized the voice. Looking around the small room he saw Toshiro sitting on a large crate while staring out a nearby window. The captain must have noticed him staring when he turned away from the window.

Finally managing to sit up, Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to relieve some of the stiffness, "What the hell happened Toshiro?"

The captain did not show any signs of being annoyed by the familiarity in his tone and that set Ichigo on edge. The only times Toshiro would not retort against being called by his first name was if something really bad had happened or was about to happen. The stern expression on his face gave Ichigo all the confirmation he needed that he was right.

"Honestly, I have no idea Ichigo," Toshiro answered after several minutes of silence, "The last thing that I recall before finding myself in this place is an intense green light. Do you know anything else?"

Ichigo frowned as he tried to recall what happened in the time since Urahara's invention went haywire. Despite his best attempts on focusing his mind he could not remember anything before waking up in the room. Toshiro seemed to sense his answer and sighed in frustration.

"Since you don't know either I suggest we come up with a plan on what to do…Hey!"

Before Toshiro even started talking Ichigo had managed to stand up and make his way to the door. He did not need someone else to tell him that he was not in the soul society anymore. The architecture of the building did not resemble anything from feudal Japan. In fact, as he opened the door and saw the surrounding area for the first time, nothing seemed to look like any place he had been. If he was forced to guess he would suggest he landed in a cross between the Middle Ages and modern times. He was just about to step outside when Toshiro roughly grabbed his arm and pulled him back inside.

"What do you think you're doing Ichigo?" he growled.

Ichigo pulled away from Toshiro, "I was going to go find out where we are. You just said you had no idea where we were and how we got here. What better way is there to find out then exploring the place?"

The two shinigami glared at each other for several moments before Toshiro relented. Closing the door to prevent any unwanted attention he said, "The situation is not as cut and dry as you think."

"What are you saying?"

Toshiro shrugged and looked out the window again, "We arrived in this place about two hours. Whatever brought us here managed to knock you out and left me feeling extremely weak. I don't think I have recovered yet. It wasn't long until I heard several voices drawing closer. I quickly figured that they were coming to investigate the green light that accompanied our arrival and knew it would be prudent to find a place to hide until they left. I had just managed to drag your body into this building when they finally reached the area."

"What did they look like?"

"They were human, or at least something that resembled humans to a great extent. The thing that drew my focus was that they were all wearing fully metal armor and tempered steel swords."

Ichigo's eyebrows shot up in disbelief, "How the hell did we travel back in time?"

"That was my first assessment," Toshiro said before continuing, "But I found out that I was wrong when another being showed up. He was dressed in a brown and green robe and had an ornate staff strapped to his back but that wasn't what surprised me. He had dark purple skin, glowing yellow eyes and green hair."

Ichigo could not figure out what to say. Toshiro was the most straight-laced shinigami he knew. He didn't even have an imagination to make things like this up. To see the captain say something like that with a serious face caused his brain to shut down. The only thing that was able to come out of his mouth was an inarticulate, "Huh?"

"That was my reaction as well but I didn't have time to gawk when that being started doing something strange. He mumbled something I wasn't able to hear and soon he was surrounded by a green aura. The strangest thing about the whole scene was that I wasn't able to sense any reiryoku or reiatsu. Whatever that guy was doing it was something entirely new."

"How long ago did they leave?"

"About thirty minutes ago."

"That settles it," Ichigo announced and opened the door again. Before Toshiro had a chance to stop tried to stop him but was interrupted, "Look Toshiro. Whoever these people are they are not going to leave until they find us. Staying here would just increase the chance of someone stumbling onto our hideout.

"Ichigo that's…actually, that is rather brilliant," Toshiro admitted. He had known Ichigo for almost two years and in all that time the substitute shinigami was more prone to attacking first and thinking things through afterwards.

After a moment he came to a decision, "Look Ichigo if we are going to go out there we have to be prepared for a confrontation. We have no idea what kinds of abilities these people have or their overall strengths. While they might not know what we look like it would be best to remain calm and collected to minimize the suspicion placed on us."

"Right," Ichigo nodded but saw that Toshiro was giving him a skeptical look. He couldn't really blame the captain for his disbelief. After all, he was never known for being subtle or discrete when it came to sensitive matters. When Toshiro started to walk away he fell in step behind him, deep in thought. He just hoped that he was able to return home as quickly as possible.

Several dozen yards behind the two shinigami and floating over the rooftops was a green eye intently watching them. When they turned a corner and passed out of view the eye waited a moment before floating off after them.

* * *

...

* * *

Uryu was sweating as he reached the top of the staircase. Taking a moment to catch he breath he realized just how much he had depended on his reiryoku to augment his physical abilities. He couldn't believe he was this out of shape when forced to rely on just his muscles. Wiping sweat from his brow he headed towards the only door while promising himself to start going to a gym when he returned home.

He stopped just before the door and gently put his ear against it. It wouldn't be prudent to be ambushed by a single guard just on the other side of the door. After a few seconds of hearing nothing besides the hollow wind blowing through the structure from the cavern outside Uryu grabbed the metal handle of the door and pushed. Stepping inside the large room he could hear nothing aside from the soft creak of the door behind him. Looking around his attention was quickly drawn to the single cell placed against the far wall. He squinted to get a better look inside but the positioning of the torches in the room bathed the cell in shadow, making it nearly impossible to discern anything about its occupant.

Hoping he was in the right place Uryu whispered, "Harribel?"

A movement in the shadows of the cell caught his eye and a couple of seconds later Harribel appeared on the other sides of the cell. By the expression on her normally stoic face he could tell she was not particularly happy with what happened to her.

"Oh, it's you," she said with a bored tone, "How did you find me?"

"I managed to break out of my prison and subdue the guards. How did you get captured? Weren't you the third espada?"

"It's this place," she said with an interested inflection in her voice, "Somehow it drained the majority of my strength and prevents the usage of some of my more...potent abilities. When I arrived here I found myself temporarily blinded but even handicapped as such I still managed to kill ten of them before they restrained me. I woke up in this cell and haven't seen anyone until you came in."

"I know what you are talking about," he agreed. Taking out the two needles he took a careful look at the lock for her cell. If she was deemed dangerous enough to be put up here there was bound to be extra security measures in place to prevent something like this from happening. After a minute of analysis he found nothing wrong with the lock and began attempting to pick it.

"What is this place human?"

Uryu looked up from his work at the arrancar. Even though the winter war ended almost two years ago he could hear a tone of disdain in her voice. "I'm not quite sure," he said while shaking his head, "But what I found is quite disturbing."

"Oh?"

"You said you were unable to see who attacked you after arriving right?" She nodded and he continued, "This prison is located in a city populated by the living dead and I don't mean hollows, shinigami, or arrancar. I mean actual moving and talking corpses in various states of decay. It is quite disturbing to fight someone whose flesh is falling off."

"You except me to be frightened of the living dead? After decades of hearing Barragan's claims of godhood the undead just don't grab my attention," Harribel said in a sarcastic tone.

The comment caused Uryu to break his first needle and curse, "Look. Once I get you out of here I'll show you but for now I need you to be quiet. I don't know how long we have until someone finds the guard I knocked out."

Uryu worked quickly as the other tumblers in the lock clicked into place. Just as the last one fell he was pushed to the ground as Harribel slammed the door open and into the opposite wall with a loud bang. Wincing from the ringing noise of metal on stone Uryu was surprised to see the door visibly bent and the wall cracked.

"I thought you said you lost your strength?"

"I did," she replied in a flat tone, "What I just did was simply my natural strength without being augmented by reiryoku. If I had access to my power I would have escaped a long time ago."

"That may be true," he conceded, "But even with your diminished strength the door still shouldn't have been able to hold you."

Harribel took a few steps forward and thought about the situation at hand. She initially thought that the shinigami had sent her here as some plan to deprive themselves of a powerful enemy. After seeing the human arrive with her she realized that perhaps this entire thing was an accident of sorts.

"There was some type of spell or ward on the cell that my full strength could have easily shattered. In any case I thank you for freeing me."

Uryu picked himself off the ground and dusted his clothes. Harribel might have been an arrancar but at least she was polite and accommodating to those that help her.

"Where is my weapon human?"

"_And back to normal,"_ he mentally sighed, "All I found out was that someone named Gordon Wendham has them. His name was on a letter I took from the guards."

"Very well. Let us be off," she calmly said as she descended the steps and away from her prison.

Uryu followed right behind her. He was glad that she was at least willing to travel with him until they could find a way back to their world. He was sure she was able to understand that working together was possibly the only way to do so. How long it was going to last he could not say but he knew it would until they retrieved their weapons.

They reached the bottom of the stairs within a couple of minutes. When they walked into the guard room Uryu saw the undead woman he knocked out earlier standing against the wall with one hand on her head. He was surprised that she was able to regain consciousness so quickly but it seemed that she still had a massive headache.

The undead woman must have heard them come in because she turned around and shouted, "You!"

In less then a second Harribel was already to the other side of the room. With one hands she disarmed the woman while with the other she grabbed her rotten neck and lifted her off the floor. Uryu could see the forsaken's feet struggle to find purchase on the table while her clawed fingers futilely tried to injure the arrancar's arm. Harribel grew tired of the struggling after a few seconds and slammed the woman into the wall.

"You are going to tell me what I want to know," Harribel growled after allowing the forsaken a moment to recover.

Even though he knew it was pointless Uryu put a hand on Harribel's arm, "Don't you think you are being irrational? She is not going to tell us anything if you keep manhandling her like this."

"This is personal human," Harribel replied with a venomous tone that shocked Uryu, "I recognize her voice. She is the one that kicked me several times in the stomach right before I blacked out. It did not hurt as much as it annoyed me but the insults she sneered at me requires punishment."

While they were arguing the forsaken woman coughed harshly and opened one of her glowing yellow eyes. She thought she heard the woman's voice before but the other human was a complete mystery to her. When her eyes fell on Harribel she doubled her efforts to escape. She knew just how powerful the human woman was and she didn't want to be on the opposite end of her strength.

Harribel seemed to find the struggling amusing, "That is pointless you know. Nothing you do will free you from my grasp. You do not possess the power to hurt me."

"You will not escape from this place," the woman spat at them, "No living being has ever left plague prison as one of the living and even if you did the dark lady will hunt you down herself. There is no hope for your souls."

Harribel calmly looked at the woman, "It is not my soul you should be worried about."

Uryu saw Harribel turn around and tried to stop her but it was almost as if he wasn't even there. She simply brushed past him and strode over to the window. With an impressive burst of strength she used the forsaken to break through the glass and held her dangling over a hundred feet in the air.

"We have some questions for you. If you fail to answer them or lie I will let go of you. Do not think I am bluffing or test my patience. I doubt even the undead can survive falling one hundred feet to the ground. Nod if you understand."

The forsaken woman nodded, fear evident in her eyes. Without a hind of worry Harribel began her interrogation, "Let's start. Where are we?"

"You are in the plague prison in Undercity."

"Why are we here?"

The forsaken struggled for a brief moment, "This is where all living prisoners are kept until they are converted or used."

This time it was Uryu who asked a question, "What do you mean by converted?"

The woman gave Uryu her best attempt at a death glare, "Into one of us filthy human. It is a gift that your kind cannot appreciate."

"I doubt I would ever want to end up looking anything like you," he snapped back.

"We are getting off track quincy," Harribel reprimanded, "Where is Gordon Wendham. Answer quickly, my arm is getting tired."

At that moment Harribel relaxed her grip slightly causing the forsaken woman to shout in fear, "In the trade district near the Apothecarium! That's all I know! Please let me go!"

"Hold on a moment Harribel," Uryu quickly interjected. He knew at the rate this was going Harribel was prone to making due on her threat, "I heard you mention a 'Dark Lady' before. Who or what is she?"

The forsaken's lips curled up in a show of mock amusement. It seemed that she had snapped and given up any chance of walking away with her life. Her glowing eyes seemed to radiate joy at the prospects of their deaths as she mocked them, "The Dark Lady is our ruler and the most powerful of the undead. Compared to her I am nothing but dirt in the ground. She already knows that you are here and will more than likely come to see you very soon. I wouldn't be surprised if she was on her way up here at this very moment. She is going to tear your souls asunder and have you tortured to the point where you beg for death but will not allow it. Her cruelty towards the living knows no bounds. Pray to whatever god you believe in that you can take your own life before she finds you. I hope-"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by a scream as Harribel let go of her neck, allowing her to plummet to her doom. Uryu looked on in horror as Harribel turned away from the window and towards the door leading to the exit.

"Why did you do that?"

Harribel stopped and turned around, "Do you not understand our current situation quincy? We are in a world that has sapped the majority of our reiryoku while surrounded by the living dead. Showing mercy will only lead to being stabbed in the back at a moment's notice."

Uryu wanted to argue but decided to simply follow Harribel. Trying to convince her that she was mistaken would waste valuable time and he was more than certain the scream was heard by at least a couple of undead. He was at least glad that the path to the entrance of the prison was relatively uneventful, which confused him and set his nerves on edge. A prison where there was only a token guard force was ground for concern because it generally meant that there was something else in place to prevent the prisoners from escaping. He could think of three possible ways but he didn't know if logic applied to this place.

The entrance to the prison was flanked on both sides by twin stone gargoyles in various states of decay and rot. Harribel moved forward to force open the large door but was stopped when Uryu stepped in front of her.

"Be careful. We managed to get this far simply because we have not encountered any resistance. With our ability to sense reiatsu useless here we have no idea what is beyond that door. There could be an entire army waiting out there for us."

Harribel stared at him before she closed her eyes and shrugged, "Noted. Now step aside."

Uryu opened his mouth to say something but quickly thought otherwise. Perhaps Harribel had a plan that she didn't feel like sharing with him. It was a long shot but it wasn't impossible. Seeming the only obstacle to her path moving on her way Harribel moved to open the door but stopped when an arrow flew through the air and embedded itself deeply into the door near her head. Turning her head slightly she was greeting by a voice that seemed to mock her attempt to leave.

"Leaving so soon?"

Uryu tensed as the shadows in the far corner of the room began to twist and turn. Out of them stepped a woman with dark grey or blue skin, armor that revealed her entire midriff and a hood that covered everything above her lips in darkness. When she fully emerged from the encroaching shadows her lips curled up into amusement while her glowing red eyes moved between him and Harribel.

"Now what am I going to do with the two of you?" she wondered out loud as her hand reached for the black bow on her back.

* * *

...

* * *

Ichigo and Toshiro moved through the backstreets of Stormwind as quietly as they could. They considered themselves lucky that they did not run into anyone apart from a couple of people asking for spare change. The last thing they needed was for the guards to come after them. If that happened Toshiro didn't know if a shinigami captain could legally fight them off even if they were in a different plane of reality from the Human World. Still, there was something else that bothered Toshiro. It took him about five minutes to figure it out and he frowned.

"Hold on a second Ichigo," he called while coming to a stop, "Does anything feel strange to you?"

Ichigo looked puzzled, "What do you mean by strange?"

"Does it feel like your reiryoku is not flowing normally?"

Ichigo clenched a fist a few times. Now that Toshiro mentioned it, he did feel as if there was something wrong with his reiryoku. He could feel his power flowing through his body just waiting to be released in combat but he couldn't access it for some reason. It was almost as if there was something preventing him from using it and that irritated him. Pushing those thoughts aside he tried to use blunt force of will to force his reiryoku out of his body but found that nothing happened except for a brief moment of dizziness.

"I see you understand the situation," Toshiro remarked.

"You have any idea what could do something like this?" Ichigo huffed.

Toshiro looked downwards and frowned, "I first noticed something was wrong while you were unconscious. What struck me as odd was that I couldn't feel any reiryoku in the air."

"How is that a problem?"

"Without it we cannot fly or concentrate reiryoku into the soles of our feet to stand upon the air. We are literally forced to walk everywhere, a tactical disadvantage. There is one other thing I've noticed," Toshiro's eyes fell and he looked down at the ground, "Ever since arriving I am unable to feel the presence of Hyōrinmaru. I even performed Jinzen but still nothing. It is almost as if he is gone."

"Wait a second," Ichigo was starting to get seriously confused, "Isn't Hyorinmau a part of your soul? How could it just vanish without you noticing?"

"That's what is so strange. I may not be able to sense Hyōrinmaru but I can still feel his power coursing through my body."

"So let me get this straight," Ichigo folded his arms and turned away from Toshiro, "Somehow Urahara sent us to a world where our zanpakuto aren't working and there is no reiryoku. What the hell do we do now?"

Toshiro frowned in contemplation, "Let's take this one step at a time. First we need to find out exactly where we are. Once we know we should ask around to see if anyone else was sent to this place as well."

"_That's right,"_ Ichigo thought surprised that he didn't think of it himself. The two of them weren't the only ones in the room when the machine decided to go ballistic. There was a chance that he and Toshiro weren't the only two to make it to this world. Still, he thought with a grimace, just because there was more of them didn't mean they had a better chance of getting home unless they were Urahara or Mayuri.

"What if they didn't arrive anywhere near us?" he asked the captain, "How do we find them if they are all the way across the planet?"

"I don't know," Toshiro answered truthfully. He was banking on whatever sent them here to have put them all in the same area. If he had to search around the entire planet to find everyone then his plan just became a lot more complicated, "But let's take things one step at a time. Worrying will get us nowhere."

"I suppose," Ichigo conceded reluctantly. He was about to suggest what to do when he heard muffled voices and sounds coming from just ahead.

"Let us continue conversation another time Ichigo," Toshiro ordered, "We are already dressed differently enough. Talking about stuff like this might draw further unwanted suspicion. We cannot afford to have the people of this planet focus their attention on us."

True enough after several more turns in the alley they emerged in the middle of the Stormwind trading district. Surrounding them on all sides were throngs of people milling about their business either selling their wares or browsing for merchandise. While that might have been a normal enough sight it was the fact that the people might not really be people that caused the two shinigami to take a second look.

While there were more than enough humans interspaced in the crowd to conclude that they were the most populous race the other beings weren't exactly sparse. Due to his height over the captain Ichigo could see at least a dozen people that resembled the purple-skinned beings that Toshiro had said he'd seen earlier. He could also see short and stocky women and men with long beards that hung down to their waists. Lastly there were the extremely short people no larger than a small child with the most flamboyant hair colors he had ever seen. What person in their right minds would dare to dye their hair either bright pink or neon green?

"Are you seeing this Ichigo?"

"Yeah. But there is a positive note about coming to this world now."

"What is that?"

"At least here our hair colors are actually normal."

Toshiro's eye started twitching in fury at the comment, "Shut it and wipe that shock off your face. These people are accustomed to living together. If they see you staring at them as if you had never seen them before they might start getting suspicious."

"I suppose You are right about one thing. It does appear that we will blend in much more easily than I anticipated," Toshiro stated with a bit of relief in his voice. After seeing people in fancifully colored armor and dresses walking about without a care as to how they look, he felt his black shihakusho and white haori made his almost invisible. It was a relief to not have to worry about one less thing, "Ichigo I am going to take a look around to find out just where we are. Until I get back try to stay out of trouble."

"Wait a second, why do you get to go? Unlike you I actually look like an adult"

"Because," Toshiro explained with clenched teeth while already walking away, "I can actually act mature and reasonable unlike yourself. If I were to allow you to do this instead chances are we will somehow end up in trouble and running for our lives."

"Whatever," Ichigo grumbled as the white-haired captain was swallowed up the crowd. He stood there for a second before walking away. Why did everyone think he was going to get into trouble just by standing around and doing nothing? Spotting a bench nearby he headed over and laid Zangetsu down and sat with an audible sigh. His muscles were still sore from whatever brought them to this world. A few moments of rest would do him some good.

"_I think I'll let Toshiro do all the work."_

Despite his weariness Ichigo found himself unable to sit down. He was in a new world; he should be looking around not nodding off. How many other people back on Earth, living or dead, could claim they visited another plane of existence?

"Ah screw this," he exclaimed getting back up, "I might as well take a look around."

Placing Zangetsu on his back and sticking his hands into his pockets he began to walk away. For a moment a part of his mind thought that Toshiro would be upset to find him wandering off. Immediately afterwards the rest of his brain concluded that if the captain wanted to find him it wasn't exactly hard to do. How many other people with orange hair, a black robe and a large cleaver-like sword were there in this city?

"Hey you!"

Ichigo swiveled his head around at the deep voice. Walking towards him was a night elf wearing a brown and green robe with a motif of leaves and nature. As he approached the shinigami the night elf handed Ichigo a piece of paper.

Grabbing it, Ichigo realized that he could oddly read it, "What is this?"

"Thank you for asking. I am collecting signatures to renovate the Stormwind Park. While there is nothing wrong with it, several of the adjacent buildings are current abandoned and in dire need of repair. I believe with enough signatures the nobles could be convinced to tear the buildings down to expand the park."

A part of Ichigo wanted to help the man but then another part said to hold on. He had seen enough movies about people travelling to different worlds that inevitably end up with the hero screwing things up. Rather then risking something like that he shook his head, "Sorry but I can't."

"I see," the night elf said depressed, "Well then I thank you for at least admitting it."

As he reached towards the petition in Ichigo's hand he accidently brushed against the shinigami's skin. Recoiling as if shocked, the night elf took a step back and cradled his hand. Ichigo was confused and became even more so when he saw nothing wrong with the night elf's hand. Still, the night elf seemed to be looking at Ichigo with something resembled confused anger.

"What the hell are you?"

"I have no idea what you talking about."

"What have you done to my hand?" the night elf hissed.

Ichigo took another look and still saw nothing wrong, "I don't know what the hell your problem is but your hand looks perfectly fine."

The night elf did not seem to buy that answer and ran off after warning, "There will be repercussions for this!" The crowd around them parted to let the night elf run through but did not seem to know why he was doing so. When he disappeared around a building Ichigo was still standing there in a mixture of shock and awe.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?"

"There you are Ichigo!" A familiar voice said from behind him, " I found what we were looking for. Next time I say don't move, listen." Toshiro then noticed Ichigo hadn't turned around or was even paying attention, "What's the matter?"

"I think I just blew our cover."

"What? How?"

"I don't know," he replied, "Have you touched anyone yet Toshiro?"

"What?" Toshiro asked confused by the question. When he saw that Ichigo was completely serious he sighed, "Yes. Several people in fact. A few of the guards thought I was a kid trying to get out of school and attempted to take my zanpakuto. I managed to convince them otherwise."

"There was this guy trying to convince me to sign this petition or something. He touched me for a second and then reeled back in pain. The strange thing is that there was nothing wrong with him."

Toshiro's expression turned grim, "That is rather strange but it could just be an isolated incident or perhaps the man was reacting to your remaining reiatsu. For the time being you should refrain from making contact any more then is necessary.

Ichigo shrugged, "I haven't touched anyone else and I don't think I will anytime soon."

"I don't think you have much of a choice Ichigo," Toshiro said, his attention focused at something behind Ichigo.

Ichigo turned around and saw ten guards pushing their way through the crowd, their weapons drawn and shield ready. Frowning, he reached for his zanpakuto and prepared to fight when Toshiro held out an arm. The captain gave him a look that told him to surrender. Deferring to the captain's judgment Ichigo moved his hand away from his sword and raised his arms into the air. When the two of them didn't make a move towards their weapons the leader of the guards stepped forward.

"By order of Lady Prestor you two are under arrest."

"_This place just keeps getting better and better."_

* * *

_..._

* * *

_**Winterspring**_

Kenpachi Zaraki was bored. Strike that, he was _extremely_ bored.

When he usually gets bored Kenpachi likes to go search for someone to fight. Usually that person is Ichigo but that coward tries to say they are already 'friends' and flees whenever he gets too close. The bastard won't even look him in the eyes anymore. Kenpachi could make due without Ichigo and his excuses but there was one thing preventing him from doing just that. He was surrounded by miles upon miles of ice and snow.

"Ugh! This is stupid." he growled into the howling arctic wind, his voice dying quickly in the air. He couldn't recall any time in his long life where there hadn't bee someone to fight, weak or not. To find himself in a situation where he was the only living thing for miles was both new to him and incredibly aggravating. He was a man who lived, even thrived, on battle. It was his very lifeblood and essence. How was he supposed to pass the time without anyone to fight? Hell, he was desperate enough to put up with Ikkaku or Yumichika's attempts at conversation, as boring as they may be.

"Damn it," he kicked the ground and took a look around, "Where the hell did that bastard Mayuri send me? If he was going to test his crap on me couldn't he have sent me someone to fight at least?"

Standing up, Kenpachi slashed his zanpakuto through the air a couple of times in frustration before gazing into the distance, "Staying here with nothing to fight is boring. I thought I saw smoke to the north. Might be someone to fight there."

As his sandaled feet crunched over the ice and snow Kenpachi passed the ruined remains of temples and buildings. The captain did not spare them a second glance except to remark, "If that bastard sent me to the future without anyone to fight I'll kill him."

He hadn't walked for long when he began to feel faint vibrations in the ground. Stopping and looking around he couldn't seem anything nearby but he still felt the ground shake every second or two, as if someone large was walking. Sensing something behind him, he turned around and saw several giants stomping their way towards him with their ice-covered arms stretched out towards him. Kenpachi narrowed his eyes when he saw that they seemed to be entirely made out of rock and ice but quickly had a smile plastered on his face for a very simple reason. These giants, unlike that arrancar who called himself an espada, had the power to back up their size.

"Great! I was just looking for a fight to kill the boredom," he said and held his zanpakuto in front of him. The ice giants were nearly upon him and he could feel their hatred for him already, "I hope that size is for more than just intimidation. The boredom has been killing me!"

Pushing off the ground he leapt into the air and swung his zanpakuto at the nearest frost giant.


	4. Chapter 4

_I know that a lot of you have been waiting for it so here is the fourth chapter for Journey of Spirits. This is where things start to get interesting and my character's journeys truly begin. Enjoy and review! __As always thank you to the following readers for the reviews to my last chapter: Infinite Freedom, saddas74, Blinded in a bolthole, kinglugia, Transcendent Being Fan, ultima-owner, Baron von Nobody, S.R.457, WoW, tarrangar, nisemono96, and Raximus._

_Chapter 4 Edited: July 9, 2013_

_There was not a whole lot to fix in this chapter apart from several grammatical errors and types. I was pretty much ok with how this chapter turned out. Chapter 5 should be coming out soon._

* * *

...

* * *

**Journey of Spirits**

**Chapter 4: The Ensuing Conflicts**

Kenpachi landed on the icy landscape and stood still for a moment before turning around. As he walked away several frost giant corpses slowly collapsed to the ground in pieces behind him with a loud crash. Resting his zanpakuto on his shoulder he realized that even all those opponents had taken less then five minutes for him to beat even in his weakened state. He was not even injured. It was such a waste of his time.

"Too weak to even break my bones. Pathetic."

He didn't know why he was feeling so weak but he first noticed it during the fight when instead of his zanpakuto slicing through the entire arm of one of the giants it had simply gone about halfway through. While impressive for anyone else it just showed how much power he was missing.

"Wait just a second…" he trailed off as he came to a realization, "If I'm weak it means that fights should be more challenging. This is great! It was getting kind of boring without someone strong to fight me. This place might be fun after all."

With a new goal Kenpachi continued to head north following the smoke rising in the distance. After several minutes of peace and quiet he found his path blocked by what appeared to be a purple gateway. Swinging his zanpakuto through it a couple of times he saw that his sword passed through it like it was smoke. Intrigued by the development and possible end to his boredom he watched as a skeletal creature floated out. The creature waved its hand to close the portal before turning its attention to Kenpachi.

Kenpachi made an annoying sound with his tongue, "God you're an ugly bastard. What the hell are you supposed to be?"

The lich ignored Kenpachi's insult. Raising a skeletal finger it pointed at the shinigami and said in a echoing voice, **"I am Balzaphon, a lich in the employ of the Lich King. My master has seen the prowess and skill you possess and wishes to have you pledge loyalty to him. In exchange you will be able to fight as many of his enemies as you desire."**

Kenpachi was many things but he was not stupid, "What's the catch?"

"**You must swear to serve my master in both life and death."**

A contemplative look adorns Kenpachi's face and the lich, believing that he has almost managed to convince him, continues speaking, **"My master is the most powerful being on Azeroth. All those that oppose him will have their souls rent asunder or enslaved for all eternity. We will move like a scourge across the lands while-"**

Balzaphon was cut off mid-speech as the lich's body was bifurcated in a burst of yellow reiatsu. As Balzaphon's expression showed his shock Kenpachi swung his zanpakuto several times and muttered, "Damn it, that was weak. Have I really lost that much strength?"

"Oh that's right, you are probably trying to understand what just happened. You see I enjoy a good fight against strong opponents and perhaps this master of yours would have given me all the strong opponents I could dream of but there was one thing you said that really pissed me off," here Kenpachi's expression changed to one of anger, "I do not like it when people are manipulated. Fighting and killing is one thing but enslaving souls is just screwed up. Did you really expect me to just give up who I am for the promise of a fight? Get real. Now then, how long do you plan to lie on the ground and pretend to be dead?"

At that declaration Balzaphon's body began to release a burst of mana. In a matt of seconds his body had broken down into dust and ash before reforming completely over a dozen meters away. However it appeared that something had gone wrong with his resurrection. The part of him that had been severed by Kenpachi's zanpakuto, his entire left arm and part of his rib cage, did not reform and seemed to be causing the lich great duress.

"**What is this?"** Balzaphon growled as his remaining hand gripped his shoulder as if that would lessen the pain he was feeling.

"What's the matter?" Kenpachi said in a bored tone. He could not understand what the big deal was. A skeleton wasn't supposed to have pesky things like nerves and pain so he couldn't see what the problem the lich was having.

"**Don't act as if you are an idiot! When I reformed I should have fully healed all my wounds. You did not destroy my phylactery so tell me how you did this!" **

"Hold on a second, you expected to die and then come back fully healed? Damn it, that's a cheap way to fight. Makes the whole thing kind of pointless," Kenpachi's expectations for the fight had just dropped to almost none. What was the point of fighting if there was no chance of dying? It basically made the whole thing pointless!

"**It isn't possible to permanently injure a lich without destroying their phylactery. What ability does that blade of yours possess?"**

"Special ability?" Kenpachi said with derision, "A sword is meant just for fighting, cutting and killing. Special powers just make fighting boring."

Balzaphon didn't seem to like his answer when frost and ice began to gather around his remaining hand, **"I have played with you long enough as is. If you will not serve my master in life then you shall do so in death. Ice Bolt!"**

The frost spell, bolstered by the necromantic energies that coursed through the lich's soul, shot out towards the shinigami. Years of fighting the living and worming his way up through the ranks of the Scourge had given Balzaphon a good grasp on reading his opponents. When all of your contemporaries vied for your position and the good grace of their master it was prudent that one developed the ability to sense their opponents strength. As he expanded his senses outwards he realized he needed to end this battle before the human could call upon the power brimming just below the surface.

With almost no effort the captain leaned to the side and allowed the Ice Bolt to rocket past his shoulder with enough force to cause his shihakusho to flutter in the wind that was kicked up. After the dust settled Kenpachi took a look at the damage the spell inflicted on the environment and said, "Not bad at all. That could have actually hurt me if it hit. Can you do better than that?"

Balzaphon grit his teeth hard enough that cracking sounds could be heard over the arctic wind, **"You will regret mocking me human! Ice Javelin!"**

Holding his skeletal hand above his head Balzaphon gathered mana until over a dozen spears of ice formed and hovered above his head. In a single swift motion he pointed a finger at Kenpachi and the javelins of ice flew towards the shinigami at speeds several times greater than his earlier Ice Bolt.

"Now that is more like it!" Kenpachi grinned. In a series of swings he managed to destroy or deflect the majority of the javelins away from his body and into the landscape around him. However due to the limited power he now possessed his reactions were dulled and his speed decreased. Several of the spears managed to avoid being destroyed but missed hitting him while one pierced deeply into his left shoulder.

"**How does it feel?"** Balzaphon mocked, the gloating visible in his tone, **"I cannot wait for you to beg for mercy as the frost magic burns through your flesh!"**

Balzaphon was expecting Kenpachi to stumble backwards in pain or at the very least have his capabilities handicapped. He did not expect the shinigami to take one look at the projectile lodged in his body and rip it out in a single stroke, spraying the ground around him in his blood.

"I'm impressed," Kenpachi said, the front of his robes stained red with his blood, "That attack of yours must have had some power behind it if you actually managed to hurt me to this extent. Well done but then again, my strength is also quite limited for some reason. Now then, are you ready for round two?"

"**I have had enough from you! I will not stand for your insolence any longer! Frost Blast!"**

Frost Blast, a more potent version of the Ice Bolt designed to burst the target's body as all their water turned to ice, shot towards the shinigami. Kenpachi watched the lethal spell coming towards him with boredom. He couldn't believe that the lich he was fighting had all this power but absolutely no imagination. Where were the improvised attacks or combinations? And who the hell shouts out their attacks before they actually fire them? At the rate this fight was going it would seem that it was not going to be fun at all.

"So boring," he growled, grabbing the frost spell in midair and throwing it to the side with his hand. The spell impacted the ground and detonated in an explosion of ice.

"Was that it?" Kenpachi asked, shaking his hand to warm it up. Despite the power in the spell it was easy enough to slap it away although doing so left his hand covered in ice.

Balzaphon didn't respond as he tried to understand what had just happened. In all his time as a necromancer in the Cult of the Damned and then as an immortal lich he had never encountered someone insane enough to ignore life-threatening injuries without so much as a hint of pain. It was almost as if the human standing in front of him could not feel pain.

"You know, I might have been wrong before," Kenpachi thought out loud, "This might not actually be a boring fight. Stopping that attack numbed my entire hand. I can't feel a thing! It's the perfect handicap. Now we both only have one arm to fight with!"

"**You're insane,"** the lich growled while floating away from Kenpachi to plan his next course of action. There was no doubt that the human in front of him was violently insane if the lack of self-preservation was an indication.

"Who needs something as useless as sanity?"

"**It does not matter what your state of mind is!"** Balzaphon shouted as shadowed gathered around his hand. As a sphere of necromantic energy condensed above his palm he shouted, **"Surrender to the infinite darkness of undeath! Soul Sunder!"**

As the sphere of death magic flew towards him, Kenpachi sighed and gripped his zanpakuto, "Ugh, it's just so pointless fighting a weakling who just doesn't know when to quit."

Just before the spell reached him Kenpachi swung his zanpakuto upwards. The sword and spell clashed briefly in a shower of sparks and mana before the spell was redirected skywards where it detonated several seconds later in a blazing glory of black magic. Letting out a sigh after watching the fireworks Kenpachi turned his attention back to the lich, "Is that all you can do?"

Balzaphon floated above the ground frozen in fear. Never had a Soul Sunder been stopped once it was released. The whole purpose of the spell was to utterly destroy the enemies of the Scourge. His master had even claimed it was unstoppable with dodging the only way to avoid death.

"**Wh-what are you?"**

Kenpachi frowned, "That is all you have isn't it? I suppose that this is the end of the fight," The lich prepared himself for Kenpachi's attack but was shocked when the shinigami shouldered his zanpakuto and turned to walk away.

"**Where do you think you're going? This fight is not yet over!"**

"Are you kidding me?" Kenpachi shouted over his shoulder, "There is nothing you can do that can give me a proper challenge. If anything fighting you will just make me seem pathetic. I do not fight weaklings or those who don't know when to give up. Come back when you can pose a real challenge."

Balzaphon floated in silence before his body was enveloped in an aura of frost mana, **"Release your arrogance human! You have belittled the Lich King and you will now pay the ulti-"**

The lich was cut off when a large claymore pierced through his chest up to the hilt. Balzaphon gurgled and tried to grab the blade with his hand but was prevented from doing so when the owner of the blade retracted it and kicked him to the frozen ground. As the lich collapsed unmoving the night elf buried her claymore near Balzaphon's head and growled, "This is where you meet your end Scourge."

If the night elf had expected the lich to cower or beg for mercy she was sorely mistaken. Even lying helpless on the ground he began to cackle and laugh. **"You think that hurts me?"** he said as he easily stood back up to full height, causing the night elf to remove her claymore from the ground and back away, **"You are but a mortal and that is just a sword. There is no way that you can cause any permanent damage to me. Now die…"**

The night elf braced herself for the magical onslaught and shouted, "Now Eowry!"

Balzaphon chocked on his fear when he saw something that made his nonexistent heart clench. Standing across the icy plains was a male night elf priest but he was not what filled the lich with dread. It was the large green jar with a purple soul gem embedded in the top of it that scared him. While the priest had his staff held in front of his body and began chanting Balzaphon attempted to accelerate his regeneration. He needed to stall for time.

"**How did you find that?"**

"It was quite simple once you knew where to look," the warrior smirked and stood between the lich and her partner, "Now perish!"

Eowry finished his chanting and raised his staff, which began glowing with a mystical white light, "You have overstayed your time in the mortal world and have caused untold pain and suffering. Go back to the nothingness to which your soul belongs!"

The priest slammed his staff down on the phylactery and Balzaphon began screaming in pain as his one tie to the mortal plane, the one thing that guaranteed his immortality, shattered in a cacophony of screaming and wails.

"**What have you done?" **he whispered as he felt the cold shackles of mortality return.

"What should have been down long ago," the night elf warrior growled and with one quick swing of her claymore beheaded the lich. Before his body had even floated to the snowy ground it started to disintegrate into dust and smoke, leaving nothing but several odd bones and pieces of decorative jewelry.

The battle over and her life no longer on the line the warrior shuddered in relief and picked up her claymore, "Finally it is over, Winterspring is once again free from the taint of the Scourge. Let's head back to Everlook and report to the commander Eowry, she will want to-"

"Hey!"

She turned to Kenpachi, who seemed to be rather angry about something, "What is it human?"

Kenpachi waved his sword towards the remains of the lich, "What is the big deal of interfering with my fight?"

"Your fight?" she mocked with a sneer.

"Yeah!" he shouted back, "Don't you know how rude it is to jump into someone's fight!"

"It was my interference that killed the lich or are you blind? Besides I heard you say that you were done fighting."

Kenpachi spit on the ground, "I may have been done fighting but that guy was gearing up for another attack. That meant the fight was not yet over. Besides it took some fancy spells to kill it. I managed to severe his arm with just this blade. A few more attacks would have finished the battle."

"With that wound in your shoulder?" she pointed at his bleeding shoulder, "How long could you have continued to fight with only one good arm?"

"One good arm?" Kenpachi asked puzzled as he tested out his injured left arm and found nothing wrong with it, "It seems fine to me. Full range of mobility and everything."

"Calm down Tathris," Eowyr said walking over to the bickering pair, "It is obvious that he is not of the Scourge or he wouldn't have been fighting that lich. And besides, we had been searching for the leader of the Scourge in Winterspring for the last few days. If the lich hadn't shown itself to this human it might have continued to evade us."

Tathris took a deep breath before relaxing her hand away from her claymore, "I suppose you are right Eowry. I owe you an apology human. Without you we might have never found that lich."

She turned to walk away alongside Eowry when Kenpachi's voice called out, "Just where do you think you're going?"

"You're still angry about that?" she shouted back, "We are done here. I have spent the last few days tirelessly looking for that lich and now that he is dead I am going to get some well-deserved rest."

"Nah I'm over that," Kenpachi said and sheathed his zanpakuto, "I decided I'm going to tag along with you for the moment. This place was empty and boring until that lich showed up. But you managed to kill him, though with some help," he rolled his eyes towards Eowry who flinched, "So I realized if I stick with you more exciting fights are bound to happen."

"I am not going to babysit some human who wants to bite off more than he can chew!"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Kenpachi said and walked past Tathris, "If nothing else I'll get to fight you. It will be spectacular!"

* * *

...

* * *

"Now what am I going to do with the two of you?"

As the woman slowly walked towards them from across the room Uryu took a step back and carefully considered the limited options he was given. The fact that she was able to teleport into the room meant she could probably follow them anywhere they went unless it was too dangerous for her to follow. If they wanted to make it out alive they needed to make sure she was incapacitated long enough for them to escape unnoticed.

"_The worst part,"_ he thought, _"Is that I can't even sense how much power she has. This world is so different from Earth that my ability to sense reiryoku is all but useless here. I hope that if a fight is inevitable Harribel will be enough to stop her even in her weakened condition."_

He needed time to formulate a plan. He needed to stall her.

"You don't know who I am?" the woman said, mock hurt evident in her voice.

"Don't mock us," he stalled for time, "You expect us to know someone who appeared out of thin air?"

"I thought for sure that my subjects told you _all_ about me."

"All about you? That means that you're-"

Harribel's eyes narrowed, "The Dark Lady."

"The Dark Lady Sylvanas at your service," the newly named Sylvanas exclaimed with a mock bow, "It appears that you do know who I am after all. Tell me, what happened to the deathstalkers that I had guarding you?"

"They are…indisposed."

"I figured as much," Sylvanas admitted and began twirling an arrow between her fingers, "I knew that you were trouble when you killed several of my more skilled forsaken blind and half-dead. There is just one thing I want to know. What were you going to do once you escaped?"

Uryu eyes nearly missed the movement. If it weren't for years of training and fighting he would have been dead the moment the arrow disappeared from her fingers and shot from Sylvanas's bow. His body leaned backwards almost reflexively as the arrow whistled through the air where his throat had been but moments ago.

"You managed to dodge," Sylvanas said with actual praise in her voice, "It has been a long time since anyone avoided my arrows. I must admit I was intrigued when you two appeared in the middle of Undercity but I am now determined to find out just how you tick. Tell me human, does the name Nathanos ring any bells?"

"I can't say that it does," Uryu responded, his eyes closely watching Sylvanas's hands for any more surprises. It couldn't afford to let his attention slip for a moment or he might not be so lucky as to avoid the next attack.

"Pity. I suppose you will tell me all that you know once you are risen in undeath to serve me."

Something in what Sylvanas said caused Harribel to step forward, "Just how do you plan to kill us when we aren't blind and on the verge of death?"

"Harribel, stall her while I look for our weapons!"

"Taking the cowards way out Quincy?"

Uryu didn't take his eyes off Sylvanas when he answered her, "You know as well as I do that your abilities are hampered without your zanpakuto and I am all but useless. If I can get our weapons I can fight my way back here and assist you. I just need you to keep her stalled long enough to do so."

Harribel frowned before speaking, "Very well. Just make it quick Quincy."

"Don't think I'm going to just let you leave."

"You don't have a choice," Harribel ordered and ran towards Sylvanas.

Harribel quickly maneuvered in front of Sylvanas to block Uryu from the Dark Lady's line of sight. Snapping out her leg she attempted to strike Sylvana's neck. She wasn't sure if a broken neck could put down an undead but she was willing to try. The Dark Lady reacted quicker then the arrancar anticipated and raised an arm to block it. Even as she did so, the strength behind the attack was enough to push the banshee queen back several feel along the ground. Grunting from the force behind the attack Sylvanas barely had time to dodge as Harribel came charging in. Dodging the punch she hit back with one of her own into the arrancar's stomach. Harribel grunted as the fist connected and took a step back. This was all the time Syvlanas needed to notch several arrows and fire them. Harribel managed to dodge three of them but a fourth struck her leg.

"I have you now…"

Sylvanas had no expectations of Harribel getting hit by all her arrows. She did not get where she was by underestimating her opponents. Out of her four arrows she shot three in such a way that if Harribel dodged them the fourth would be nearly impossible to avoid unless she could move at the speed of sound. So when she heard the sound of metal and wood piercing through clothing she was quite pleased.

Harribel looked down at the arrow in her leg and easily pulled it out, with only the tip of it dabbed in blood, "You will have to do better than that to wound me."

Sylvanas recovered from her surprise quickly, "How did you minimize the damage? My attack travelled too quickly for you to conjure up a defensive spell."

Harribel crossed her arms and looked at Sylvanas with boredom, "My hierro makes my skin nearly impenetrable to attacks. The fact that your arrow managed to pierce it, if barely, could be taken as a testament to your skills."

Sylvanas smiled and pulled an arrow out of the quiver on her back slowly. Uryu and Harribel watched as she blew gently on it and caused the arrowhead to glow a sickly green-yellow, "No matter. Let's see you stop this."

Uryu reacted before Sylvanas even said anything. His body was already turning away and towards the entrance to the prison. Harribel on the other hand moved towards Sylvanas just as the arrow left her bow. Before it could travel more than two feet it was snatched out of the air by the arrancar and turned around.

"I believe this is yours."

Sylvanas's eyes widened in shock as her arrow was thrown at the ground near her feet and exploded outwards in a sphere of dark energy.

Uryu had just thrown the doors open when the explosion hit his exposed back, searing his skin through his clothes and blasting him forward. His body skipped across the ancient road until he impacted the wall opposite the entrance to the prison. As he began to pull himself out of the wall and to a standing position he saw all manners of undead people converging around him. While some looked shocked that there was a human among them others seemed to want to tear the flesh from his body.

"God damn it," he muttered angrily. He couldn't afford to be caught by these people at a time like this.

A whistling through the air reached his ears and stopped his train of thoughts. Immediately ducking and rolling to the left he avoided the three arrows that would have pierced both of his lungs as well as his hearts.

"_She is really aiming to kill me now."_

"I see that explosion did not do anything to dampen your ability to run," her fury-filled voice echoed through the area. As she walked out of the smoke streaming from the entrance to the prison he noticed that her armor was cracked in a few places and her pale skin seemed to have several cuts that did not bleed. Apart from those minor wounds she did not seem to be hurt at all.

Her hand reached into her quiver and pulled out another arrow, "I have had enough of this! You have befouled my city and will pay with your blood!"

"_Crap! This is not good. Where are you Harribel?"_

The arrow was about to leave Sylvanas's bow when her body suddenly bent to the side. Her eyes widened in surprise and pain before she was thrown to the side and into a nearby building. When turned away from the smoking hole in the building he saw Harribel standing behind her with her leg extended. Her once pristine and white arrancar clothes were burnt and had holes in many places.

"Ugh," she grunted as she put her leg back down, "This place must be affecting my hierro for that explosion to have done this much damage to me."

"Are you alright?" Uryu asked running towards her. The undead around them were beginning to get antsy with their leader taken down.

"I'll be fine Quincy," she ordered. It took her a moment but she noticed the undead converging on them, "Friends of yours?"

"More like her loyal and faithful followers," he replied. It appeared that the undead were hell-bent on avenging their fallen Dark Lady. Uryu turned his head and saw a large lumbering abomination rushing towards them with bloody cleavers in two of its three hands. He really did not want to fight something like that.

"We need to think of a way to get out of here quickly."

"Take this."

Uryu turned around and saw Sylvanas's bow in Harribel's hand. The espada saw his hesitance and growled, "Are you able to use this as a replacement for your old bow?"

He gingerly took the bow from her hands and attempted to run his reiryoku through it. He assumed before even taking it that it would not work but as soon as he tried he felt his reiryoku flow through it normally. As the bow resonated with his spiritual energy he felt that while it was not perfectly in-tuned with his powers as his Quincy bow was, it would be more than sufficient for fighting.

"This will do I suppose," he said as he pulled the string back and pushed his reiryoku through the bow. After a few moments a Heilig Pfeil formed within the bow, the blue spiritual energy causing the surrounds to glow, "Still cannot form it instantaneously thought. Will have to work on that if we make it out of here alive."

They were about to attack the undead, who were caught between trying to run at them and helping Sylvanas, when several pellets bounced off the ground in front of them and exploded, covering the surrounding area in a thick yellow smoke. Uryu managed to smell it and immediately recoiled from the odor.

"Move! That won't stall them for long!"

Harribel and Uryu looked up and saw a rope hanging down from one of the large sewage pipes lining the walls of the city and at the entrance was a man frantically waving at them.

"Come on Harr-"

The arrancar was no longer listening and seemed to sense something in the distance. Uryu noticed this and tried to grab her arm only for her to pull away. Before he could say anything she had taken off into a dead sprint and disappeared around a corner off to who knows where.

"What the hell was that all about?" he shouted at her before remembering where he was. Taking off just as the first of the undead were about to reach him Uryu jumped away and shot the Heilig Pfeil towards one of the lumbering abominations. The spiritual arrow shot through the undead creature without even slowing down and blew a hole two feet across through its torso. The abomination stumbled forward a few more steps before crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

"_My Heilig Pfeil seems to pack a slightly stronger punch with this bow."_

Running towards the rope he barely caught onto it when it was hoisted up at a rapid pace. When he reached the two a large hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the tunnel.

"Thank you," Uryu said in between breaths. He had not realized just how tired he was while escaping from prison and fighting for his life while unarmed.

The man patted Uryu on the back and helped him to his feet, "Take it easy son, escaping from the Undercity is not an easy feet. The name's Flint Shadowmore by the way. I was sent to Chillwind Camp to follow up on rumors of missing and dead operatives when I received word that the Forsaken had captured some humans. It looks like I managed to make it here in time."

"How did you find out about us?"

Flint smirked, "You don't think all of the Forsaken blindly follow the Banshee Queen do you? Some of them still remember their lives as members of the living and are determined to keep their morals. One of them told me about you two and how to break you out." The rogue seemed to notice that someone was missing and looked around, "Where is your friend?"

Uryu pointed to the Undercity, "She ran off on me to who knows where."

Flint ducked as an arrow surged through the arrow and bounced off the stone tunnel walls, "Damn it! I don't have time for this. If we don't leave soon the undead will discover how I snuck in and we will all be trapped. Your friend has two minutes. If I don't see any sign of her still living body we are leaving!"

The first minute passed quickly and the second was almost up when the sound of a large explosion reverberated throughout the city. Flint and Uryu braced themselves against the wall of the tunnel as the shockwave reached them.

"By the Light, what the hell was that?" Flint shouted.

"No clue," Uryu answered and pointed to the city below, "There!"

Flint grabbed the rope and looked down, "Where?"

Sure enough down below Harribel could be seen running through the streets. The arrancar was doing a fantastic job of weaving through the undead attempting to attack her. Uryu could even see the reflective glint of metal and realized that she must have found her zanpakuto.

"_So that is why she took off. She must have sensed her zanpakuto and went to get it."_

Breaking out of his thoughts Uryu shouted, "Throw down the rope!"

Flint nodded and tossed it over the edge of the tunnel just as Harribel used her zanpakuto to cut through the last remaining Forsaken standing between her and freedom. When her hand closed around the rope Flint began to retract it, "Give me a hand here!"

With both of them pulling on the rope Harribel was in the tunnel in less than a minute. She did not have more than a few seconds to recuperate before Flint stood up and started to walk down the tunnel, "I'm sorry but there is not time to rest. The Forsaken are most likely searching for another way to this tunnel as we speak. We need to leave before they surround us."

Back down in the Undercity an arm shot out of the rubble that was soon followed by the rest of Sylvanas's body. As the undead swarmed around her she ordered them to back off.

"I am fine. Where are the humans?"

One forsaken, a male deathguard, gave a salute and said, "They escaped through one of the tunnels after some other human distracted us. Varimathras has ordered us to pursue and eliminate them."

Sylvanas growled, "Belay that order. They are to be tracked and left alive."

"My lady?"

She glared at the undead, "Are you questioning me?"

"No-no! I'll go and give the order."

Sylvanas watched the undead run off before turning and storming towards the Royal Quarters. She did not know what Thrall's plan was but she did her part, even if it did not go all according to plan. She had informed Thrall of the two humans arrival as soon as she found out and he had formulated the plan to allow them to 'escape' in order to gauge their intentions.

"_That woman was extraordinarily gifted,"_ she mused, _"She managed to catch my Exploding Shot in midair and cause it to detonate at my feet. If she had simply avoided it the explosion would have simply forced them off balance and I would have left in the ensuring confusion."_ Sylvanas entered the tunnel leading to the Royal Quarters and nodded to the deathguards along the passage, _"That boy was brilliant for someone unarmed. He managed to dodge my attacks while breaking down my attack patterns. I dare say if I was still alive I would have trained him to be a ranger. It takes a special mind to track multiple arrows midflight. He might have more innate skill than Nathanos."_

As she entered her quarters she quipped to herself, "I suppose I will have to track them down eventually. That boy stole my bow. I _liked_ that bow."

* * *

...

* * *

Bolvar paced back and forth in front of the two cells, unable to determine what to make of their occupants. When he sent out the Stormwind guard to capture them it was under the assumption that they were agents of the Horde or, Light forbid, the Lich King. He had expected a fight with causalities and compensated for that by ordering an entire squad to apprehend them. That is where things started going strange. Instead of fighting to escape or changing into whatever was their true form they had surrendered, albeit hesitantly for one of them, without a fight. From the reports the guards were just as confused as he is and initially assumed it to be some sort of trap. It was only after a tense five-minute standoff the guards realized that the two were actually surrendering.

"Who are these people?"

"Sir?"

Bolvar looked at the guard, a Warden Thelwater if he recalled correctly, "Just trying to figure out where these people came from. SI:7 wasn't able to find out anything about them; not what ship they arrived on, where they were born or even their names. Mathias Shaw was rather upset about this and I don't blame the man."

Warden Thelwater looked pensive a moment before asking, "Permission to speak freely my lord?"

Bolvar nodded and the warden continued, "In all my years of watching over the stockades and the dangerous beings held within I have seen many things ranging from ogre mages to necromancers. You could say that I have developed a sense for criminals and their motives." Thelwater pointed over his shoulder to the two cells at his back, "Those two people are not criminals. In fact, they seem more confused about what is going on than us."

"Are you sure?" Bolvar asked. He had suspected that something was wrong with their arrests. The information he received about them had described them as extremely dangerous but everything about them has been contradictory.

Thelwater shrugged, "I have interrogated many spies and hardened criminals in my two decades of service and therefore know all the basic signs and tells. When they were brought in I had an SI:7 agent attempt to trick them into thinking she was an accomplice and was also spying on Stormwind."

"They did not fall for it?"

"It was more like they had no idea what she was talking about," Thelwater said.

Bolvar looked pensive. He supposed that the testimony from both Warden Thelwater and the SI:7 would be enough to release the two unfortunately with all the recent events going on he couldn't afford to be lenient. Contrary to what every bone in his body was telling him he needed to keep the prisoners locked up for the moment, "Warden Thelwater, I truly appreciate your input on the matter and if it were up to me I would release them. Unfortunately we have a justice system in place that was created to dispense fair punishment for the guilty and release the innocent. If they are as innocent as you claim they should be free to go rather soon."

Thelwater just grunted and turned back to his post. Bolvar knew why the warden was annoyed. It was no secret that most of the Stormwind guards did not like the House of Nobles interfering in military affairs. The most common complaint was why civilians that had no military experience were dictating orders to soldiers. Bolvar could not find fault with that argument and even supported it but he knew the nobles would never give up any power. He had tried to argue his point across multiple times to Katrana but time and time again she blew him off by stating he was overstepping his boundaries.

"_Perhaps the House of Nobles would be agreeable to a short stint of non-combat military experience. That would give them the knowledge to make informed decisions and get the Stormwind guards off their backs."_

Thinking quickly Bolvar made his way towards one of the cells and ordered the guards to let him in. They attempted to protest for his safety and while he was respectful of that he needed to get in. After a couple of threats of demotions and latrine duty Bolvar was inside the cell with the door closing behind him. In front of him was a table with the sole occupant of the cell sleeping in a chair with his head propped up on his arm.

"Wake up."

The orange haired boy blinked once and looked at Bolvar, "I was awake."

Ignoring the barb Bolvar sat down in the chair opposite from Ichigo, "How old are you son? You don't even appear to be out of your teens."

"Seventeen," Ichigo replied, "Who exactly are you?"

"My name is not important at the moment, "Bolvar said and folded his arms across the table, "Since you're a kid I'll be perfectly frank with you. Despite what some of my associates believe I think that you're innocent. They have in his their head that you are either an agent of the Horde or even the Twilight's Hammer."

Ichigo's expression soured, "First of all don't call me a kid, the name's Ichigo, and second I have no clue about anything you just said. Twilight's Hammer? Horde? What kind of names are those?"

Bolvar was puzzled by Ichigo's denial. He thought for sure he would have at least been familiar with those groups, "You honestly have no idea?"

"Not one."

He sighed, "That must makes things worse…Ichigo was it? You are not making this any easier for you."

"I'm innocent of whatever crime you think I committed so it doesn't matter."

"Perhaps a different approach is in order," Bolvar acquiesced, "Why don't you tell me why you are here in Stormwind?"

"That the name of this city?" Ichigo said, "Truth be told it was kind of an accident that we ended up here."

"Accident?"

"Yeah, well-"

"Lord Fordragon!" one of the guards said opening the door to the cell and cutting of Ichigo, "Lady Prestor is here and is demanding to see you."

Bolvar grumbled before standing up, "I suppose this is farewell then Ichigo."

He could feel Ichigo's eyes on his back until the door closed behind him. He didn't have a moment's piece before a familiar voice, still nasally from the flu, demanded, "What are you doing conducting interrogations Bolvar? We have people for that."

"I am glad to see you up and about Katrana but what are you doing here?"

The dark haired woman scowled at him, "The last time I checked the House of Nobles was privy to all matters in Stormwind, both private and military. The moment I heard that you managed to catch the two spies I came down to check on the progress. Now then, have you found out anything about who they are working for?"

Bolvar rubbed his face, "The consensus is that they may not be spies after all."

Katrana jabbed a finger at Bolvar's chest, "Keep your sentimentalities out of any judgments you make. If they are not spies how do you explain their strange choice of clothing and weapons?"

"The state of one's clothing is usually not an indication of their motive Katrana," Bolvar reprimanded and walked over to a nearby cabinet. Pulling a key out of his pocket he unlocked the door and pulled out Toshiro's zanpakuto, visibly struggling as he attempted to hold it, "The skill of whoever created these weapons far exceeds anything we can accomplish. Despite their weight they seem to be impervious to most damage and do not have a single mark or scratch on them."

"That should be grounds enough for keeping them in the stockades. At least until they tell us who created them."

Bolvar sighed and with much difficulty put the zanpakuto back into the cabinet, "I don't think having extraordinary weapons is grounds for arrest or the stockades would be packed full of guilds and adventurers. They will answer several questions and if they are not seen as a threat they will be released."

"But Bolvar-"

"That's the end of the discussion Katrana. I know you are just trying to do your own part to protect Stormwind but you need to leave this to the people who know what they are doing!"

She glared at Bolvar with a ferocity he had never before seen from her. She stalked past him, shoving his body as she did so, and headed towards the cell he had not yet entered himself. As he attempted to stop her from doing what she was about to do part of his mind realized that it was most likely futile.

"Katrana I must insist that-"

"Keep Lord Fordragon occupied and unable to enter this room for the next ten minutes," she ordered the guards while ignoring him, "However if you hear anything that sounds like I am in danger you may open the door."

Entering the prison cell and closing the door behind her she could immediately feel something was different about this prisoner. Unlike the humans that she is forced to surround herself with all day this person might have looked human and even acting human but he was not one by any stretch of her imagination. Expanding her senses as far as her limited body would allow without giving away her identity she could feel a very familiar power emanating from the thing masquerading as a child in front of her. It was almost as if…

"_Just because I was able to sense him does not mean he has sensed me. I have been in Stormwind for so long that everyone thinks I am human. I just have to play my cards right and perhaps I will have a scapegoat."_

She put on her best smile and walked forward, "Tell me child. How did you get yourself into this much trouble? Where are your parents?"

Toshiro lay on the small cot in the corner of the room but did not open his eyes; "I am not a child despite my outward physical appearance. I can tell that you are at least trying to be cordial so if you want to have a conversation I would prefer if you do not address me as such."

"_Well his behavior is certainly peculiar."_ Straightening her dress she sat down in a chair, "Very well then. How about we start with our names. I am Katrana Prestor."

"Toshiro Hitsugaya."

"That is an odd name. You aren't from Stormwind or Lordaeron are you?"

"How can I be from someplace I have never heard of before?"

"I suppose you cannot," she slowly agreed with a nod of her head, "But perhaps we can work something out. Can you tell me how it is you ended up in Stormwind?"

Toshiro looked at her and sighed, "I don't really have any clue. If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me anyway."

Katrana saw that Toshiro wasn't giving her anything and kept up the act, "Toshiro was it? I don't think anything you can say can surprise me. We do have magic, demons, and dragons roaming Azeroth after all. I'm sure your tale is tame compared to them."

Toshiro's eyebrow quirked slightly and she knew she had his attention. He frowned a moment before speaking, "I'll keep it short. A compatriot of mine was testing out something and it horribly backfired. The next thing I knew I was here."

"And that's it?"

He looked annoyed, "Were you expecting some fable that takes hours to explain?"

Katrana did not seem to like his response. Getting up she walked over to where he was laying down and looked him right in the eye, "I think I have placated you enough. Why is someone like _you_ in Stormwind?"

Toshiro didn't like the emphasis she put in her question and glared right back at her, "What is that supposed to mean?"

She leaned forward until her face was less than a foot from his. As her eyes began to glow yellow she whispered, "Don't play coy with me _dragon_. You may have been able to conceal which flight you are from as well as your overall strength but I can feel exactly what you are. Now who sent you? Alexstrasza? Malygos? Ysera?"

Toshiro glared back at Katrana, "You can glare at me all you want but I don't know anything more than I already told you. Now unless you have some other questions you can leave."

Katrana found herself taken aback by his dismissal. What she had just done was the draconic equivalent of a formal duel. No matter what flight they came from, when a dragon initiates a challenge the recipient is required to at least acknowledge that they were a dragon. The fact that Toshiro did not say anything about his flight or why he was there either meant he was not a dragon, which was highly unlikely, or he was exceedingly powerful and saw her challenge as nothing more than a child's tantrum. She found the implications of the second option highly disturbing. There were only a few dragons on Azeroth that were capable of just dismissing her power like that and all of them could kill her in the blink of an eye.

She didn't say anything else and quickly left the room. As she swept past the guards she told Bolvar to let them go and didn't stay long enough to hear his confused response. She needed to organize her thoughts and contact her brother as soon as possible. The presence of a powerful dragon that was not antagonistic to mortals would jeopardize their plans greatly. Nefarian had barely survived the encounter with the mortals and if it were not for the magic she siphoned from several captured red dragons he would have been slain that day.

"_Ever since then he has changed greatly. It is curious that being brought to the brink of death has made him more cautious and less arrogant. While I would love to deal with this myself I have appearances to keep and will need to rely on Nefarian to deal with this new player."_

One hour later Ichigo and Toshiro found themselves back in Stormwind with their zanpakutos returned to them.

"Any idea what happened in there Toshiro?"

The captain shook his head, "I have no idea but there was one person that put me on edge. A woman by the name of Katrana Prestor came into my cell and started asking me questions. It started off pleasant enough but then something strange happened…"

"Strange?" Ichigo asked as they turned around a corner, "How so?"

"Her eyes changed color and she started spouting nonsense about 'flights' and asked me about a list of names that I never heard of before."

"Flights? Does she think you're a bird or something?"

Toshiro glared at Ichigo, "Dragon actually. Your stupid jokes aside, she is someone that needs to be carefully watched out for. She appears to be well-integrated into the power structure of this city and attempting to confront her about her intentions could bring unwanted attention to us."

Ichigo sighed and rubbed his neck. He knew that if they couldn't leave this place soon enough he would get pulled into some time of world-changing plot or war. It always seemed to follow him wherever he went. He just hoped that this one didn't involve his friends being taken captive by a man who wants to commit deicide and rule the universe.

"So what now?"

"Now…" Toshiro thought out loud, "Now we need to carefully find out if anyone else arrived here. If this world is the same size as Earth it might take a while. Luckily we ended up in a major city. Rumors about strangers appearing out of nowhere are sure to spread fast."

"If you say so. We need to make-"

Several screams and shouts of pain stopped Ichigo from saying anything else. Grabbing Zangetsu's hilt he raced down the street with Toshiro at his side. When they reached a clearing Ichigo drew his zanpakuto and sliced through a skeleton about to bite into the neck of a woman.

"The living dead? Are you kidding me?"

Toshiro drew his own zanpakuto while silently agreeing with Ichigo. Fighting hollows and the cursed souls of the dead were one thing but nothing in the Soul Society prepared him for actually combating risen corpses and skeletons. The implications were disturbing, "This is no time to try and figure out why this is happened Ichigo. The simply fact of the matter is that the dead are attack innocent and helpless people. It is our job to protect them no matter what!"

Ichigo didn't answer as he jumped into the fray and he was not the only one. Throughout Stormwind dozens of guilds and adventurers were gathering their arms to repel the undead. Despite the element of surprise the Scourge originally possessed, the strength of the Alliance forces were slowly but surely pushing them back in several areas but the undead were relentless. As the fighting intensified and the two shinigami joined in above the city something odd appeared. A necropolis, a miniature model of Naxxramas, was floating high above the ground with a swirling green vortex taking up the entire bottom. Every second several purple meteors shot out of the vortex and flew into the ground below, releasing over a dozen undead to attack the living.

The undead invasion had begun.


	5. Chapter 5

_For those of you returning to __**Journey of Spirits**__ I have made several minor (or major if you are being picky) changes to various scenes in the story. All in all there are about 2,000 new words in the first four chapters so go reread them! Here is a list of the changes I made:_

_1. The scene in Chapter 3 with Ichigo and the night elf has been changed. Ichigo's touch no longer burns the night elf's hand but simply causes him to recoil as if burnt. The original scene was hastily and poorly done and this just works out better for everyone._

_2. I expanded the conversations of the horde and alliance leaders in chapter 2 to made the story flow better. I also changed Sylvanas's entrance into Orgrimmar. This was the chapter that had the most changed or edited._

_3. I updated Chapter 1 to include new data from the recent manga chapters. I will not change Ichigo having his Fullbring version of Zangetsu but I will address his heritage eventually._

_4. Several original characters were introduced in this chapter as well as some canon characters that did not show up in the actual game. See the end of this chapter for a list of my original characters. This list will continue to expand with each chapter. As the story progresses the information in the OC section will continue to expand. This will prevent any spoilers from ruining your reading._

_**I thank my many reviewers who took the time to review this story despite my absence: **__**voidblade6, nisemono96, BlackRoseFire, simple405, Baron von Nobody, Raximus, kinglugia, reality deviant, Blinded in a bolthole, saddas74, ultima-owner, H-PockySticks, lazylegionspark, general zargon, and Infinite Freedom.**_

* * *

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* * *

**Journey of Spirits**

**Chapter 5: The Adventure Begins**

Sitting on the stairs of the Everlook inn and bored out of his mind, Kenpachi Zaraki contemplated what he was going to do. While he was perfectly fine with following those two night elves around since they seemed interesting he realized he needed to think longer term and that annoyed him to no end. He was never the kind of person to come up with a plan.

As he continued to think a picture of a smiling Ikkaku popped into his head, _"Perhaps you can ask around for someone familiar with dimensional teleportation?"_

"_I don't even understand half of what you just said."_

The picture of Ikkaku was replaced with Yumichika, _"If I were you I would simply give up. Trying to get back home is just too much of a hassle."_

"_Go to hell."_

Yumichika was pushed aside as his lieutenant, Yachiru, forced her way into his thoughts, _"Why do you want to go home when there is so many strong people to fight?"_

"_I knew that already."_

The captain's single visible eye looked over the town. Eowry and Tathris had ditched him as soon as reaching Everlook to go drinking, leaving him to stew around on his own. He saw with mild interest that several of the so-called goblins were looking at him with barely concealed nervousness. Still, he thought with a small amount of glee, they did not seem to be shying away if their subtlety drawn weapons were any clue. He wasn't in any mood to fight at the moment so he would give the goblins a pass for the moment.

"Ahem."

Kenpachi turned to see a goblin standing nearby and right away the captain found his disdain for the little being growing by the second. The small green being was dressed in clothing that looked like it cost a fortune while he carried around a ledger in his hands but what really pissed Kenpachi off was the damned smile on the goblin's face, "I notice that you are new to Everlook. Since this is obviously your first time to this outpost of the Steamwheedle Cartel I will have to ask for your pass?"

"Huh?" Kenpachi had only heard half of what the goblin said and completely ignored the rest, "What the hell are you talking about?"

If anything the goblin's smirk turned downright predatory. An expression that Kenpachi found laughable on the small creature, "If you don't have a pass, one can be obtained for the reasonable fee of twenty gold but since you have decided to enter Everlook without one I am afraid that will have to also include a late fee, expedience charges, and overtime pay. So that comes out to a total of forty five gold."

Once the goblin had finished talking he had opened his ledger and began writing down various costs and prices into the book. It took him a couple of seconds to sense the enormous shadow covering his small frame and when he looked up he saw Kenpachi standing over him and blocking out the sun.

"What the hell are you yammering on about?"

While the shinigami captain had not put any malice into the question and was actually confused about what the goblin what talking about, the greedy creature couldn't help but feel a sense of death and foreboding emanating from the captain. He shivered and looked to the goblin bruisers stationed around the outpost but as long as Kenpachi did not draw his sword or attack they would not interfere. Swallowing loudly and with hands shaking the goblin blurted out, "I-I suppose I could just overlook this transgression for the time being."

As the goblin scurried away Kenpachi blinked lazily in confusion. He had no idea what the hell had just happened. That small green creature, about the size of Yachiru now that he thought about it, had walked up to him and started saying something but Kenpachi couldn't understand him. The goblin was just talking too damn fast. He had just stood up to hear what the goblin was talking about a little clearer and the creature had looked like Kenpachi was going to skewer him. As if he would waste his zanpakuto on a weak opponent who didn't even look like he could use a sword.

"That be mighty impressive."

Kenpachi turned around, "Eh? Who the hell are you?"

"My apologies," the blue-skinned troll said in a thick accent and gave Kenpachi a small bow, "I am Zunabar."

Kenpachi didn't acknowledge the troll's introduction and looked at his companions. Besides the troll there was an orc in plate armor, a tauren, and a forsaken in robes but it was the last member of the group that drew the captain's attention. Kenpachi was not one to be fazed by appearances. He only cared about whether someone could fight or not but there was something about the forsaken that forced Kenpachi to think and he hated thinking.

The orc seemed to find Kenpachi's lack of attention insulting, "Do you think you are so superior that you cannot acknowledge a simple greeting human?"

"Huh?" Kenpachi was brought out of his thoughts by the gruff voice and turned to the orc, who was nearly as tall as he was. It was a nice change of pace to not have to crane his neck down just to talk to someone, "You say something?"

The orc bristled at Kenpachi's brushing her off and was about to correct him via applied violence when the tauren grabbed her wrist. Before the orc could turn on her companion he shook his head, "Calm down Rahina. This is not the time nor the place to fight."

The tauren turned to Kenpachi, "I apologize for my companion's…eagerness. She had not had the best encounters with humans and sometimes that clouds her judgment."

Kenpachi turned from the tauren back to the orc. While Rahina had not moved to remove her axe from across her back she did not take her hand off it, "I'm up for a fight."

Not one member of the group was prepared for that comment but Kenpachi continued, "If she's strong she might be a decent warm up. I am feeling a little stiff from all this cold air."

"You be wanting a fight?" the troll asked perplexed at Kenpachi's obvious lack of self-preservation, "You look strong, for a human, but you be no match for our friend."

"And why not blue man?"

Zunabar ignored the barb from the shinigami, "Rahina be strong enough to split stone with but a single swing."

Kenpachi looked from the troll to Rahina, who had a smug and superior look, and back again, "So she is strong enough to shatter rocks? I suppose that is good enough for an actual warm up."

"Blasted human!" Rahina snarled and gripped her axe even tighter, "Do you want to die?"

Kenpachi stood up to his full height and everyone realized just how tall the human was. Even Rahina, who was a good six and a half feet tall, was dwarfed by the shinigami's full stature, "I see you're eager to fight. That's good. This place was starting to get boring. In fact, I think I'll give you a handicap."

"A handicap?"

"Yeah," Kenpachi grabbed his shihakusho and tore it open, exposing his bare chest, "Since you're so serious about fighting me I'll give any one of you a free hit. Discuss it amongst yourself who hits me with what. I don't care if it's a weapon or a spell just hit me with intent to kill."

Both Rahina and Zunabar found Kenpachi's attitude infuriating but before they could act on it the forsaken in the group spoke up, her gravely voice a sign of her undead state, "Do you not remember where we are?"

True enough the goblin bruisers of Everlook had slowly moved to surround the group of five. Rahina weighed her options before removing her hand from her weapon, much to Kenpachi's chagrin.

"I need a drink," she said between gritted teeth and shoved past Kenpachi into the inn.

The tauren sighed and went after Rahina, He would need to stop her from drinking away all of the gold they had made so far in an attempt to get drunk. He had known her for nearly a year and he had yet to see her actually drink enough to get drunk.

"So…no fight huh?" Kenpachi was upset as much as he could be by the prevented fight. That orc, Rahina he reminded himself, looked like she could have put up quite the fight if the scars on her body were an indication of her skill. Moving past her for the moment he turned his attention to the forsaken mage. Scratching his cheek as his eyes examined her he drawled out, "You seem familiar."

Zunabar turned to his companion but the look on the forsaken's glowing yellow eyes showed she had no idea what Kenpachi was talking about, "Don't give me that look Zunabar. I have no bloody clue what this human is talking about."

Kenpachi waved her off, "Hmm…you look similar to someone I recently fought."

"There be another forsaken in Winterspring?" Zunabar asked out loud. It was no secret that the corporeal undead tended to stay as far away from the winter landscape as possible. With both the night elves killing the undead left and right due to the Scourge from the Third War, it was prudent to just avoid the entire area unless in a group.

"Forsaken?" Kenpachi asked. The word must have meant something to these people but he really didn't care, "I don't know what that is but the guy I fought was a floating skeleton or something."

Ithra Gravestone's eyes widened perceivably at the figure her undead mind conjured. The human in front of her couldn't be actually saying he fought a lich, could he?

"Guy was a total weakling. Didn't even put up much of a fight outside of his spells," Kenpachi continued, "Said his name was Balzaphon or some weird shit like that. Was he a friend of yours or something?"

Zunabar saw what was coming but reacted too slowly to stop it. With a shout of rage Ithra shot a ball of felfire at Kenpachi. The forsaken mage was furious at the human for putting her in the same ranks of the Scourge. He didn't know the memories she had as a unwilling participant in the Lich King's Scourge, memories that would never go away in her entire undead life. As the goblin bruisers moved in to stop the fighting Ithra raised her skeletal hands, "I'm done."

"Done already?" a gravelly voice spoke out of the green smoke where her felfire ball had hit the shinigami, "Because that shot actually had some power behind it."

Kenpachi's body appeared in the smoke, the only visible damage to his body was a slight burn mark on his hand where he had stopped the felfire ball. The captain looked at the superficial damage and then at Ithra, "That was impressive. If you're up for a fight I'll gladly take you up on the offer!"

Before Kenpachi could take a step towards Ithra a hard and powerful object slammed into the back of his head with enough force to push him over into the snow.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? I'm gone for ten minutes and you already have half of Everlook screaming for your blood!"

Kenpachi pulled his head out of the snow, "What the hell was that for?"

Tathris glared at him before turning to the two horde, "I take it you are the companions of the two inside the inn?"

"That we be," Zunabar said, "Is Rahina be causing trouble?"

"If by trouble you mean drinking the bartender out of his entire stock while a tauren desperately tries to stop her then yes," she deadpanned and gave a quick glance over to Ithra, "Forsaken, are you the one that attacked him?"

Unable to sense any hidden malice behind the night elf's words Ithra nodded. Instead of the usual harsh remark or threat Tathris laughed, "Then I have nothing against you. I personally find this man to be incredibly annoying."

"If you despise him so much why do you travel with him?" Ithra questioned.

"Because this man singlehandedly fought a lich to victory," before any protests from the two horde could be made Tathris took a good look at Zunabar, "By that attire I take it you are a member of the Cenarion Circle?"

Grateful at the change of conversation Zunabar nodded, "Yes."

"Interesting. Most horde druids I've encountered have been tauren."

Zunabar gave a throaty laugh, "Just because we trolls be rare when it comes to the druidic discipline doesn't mean we don't exist."

Tathris grunted in agreement and turned to Kenpachi, "Are you ready to head out?"

"Head out?" Kenpachi had no idea what the night elf warrior was talking about.

She rolled her eyes, "Did you think I was simply going to let you roam around Azeroth all by yourself?"

Kenpachi scoffed and turned away from Tathris, "And why the hell should I listen to anything you have to say?"

"Because…" she trailed off and gave the shinigami and toothy grin, "I am the one that struck the finishing blow to the lich."

"Only because I wore it down enough for you to do so!"

Tathris gave a haughty huff, "You keep telling yourself that."

"We'll just get going," Ithra pushed by and dragged Zunabar into the inn. The undead could sense when things would start to go wrong and right now that danger sense was off the charts. At this rate she might need to flee Everlook just to escape the ensuing conflict.

At the same time the forsaken and troll were going to enter the inn Eowry was leaving. Sliding to the side to allow the two horde into the inn, the priest gave the bickering Tathris and Kenpachi a cursory glance and sighed, "I take it you have informed our friend that we are leaving soon?"

"Is everything ready?"

Eowry nodded and handed Tathris a scroll, "I just finished writing our report but it turns out we will need to head to Moonglade instead of Darnassus now."

"Why?" Tathris looked like she just swallowed a lemon.

"High Priestess Tyrande has not yet returned from Stormwind and Archdruid Staghelm is currently in Moonglade to speak to a conclave of druids."

Having heard enough and in a sour mood Kenpachi slung his zanpakuto over his shoulder and walked towards the exit of Everlook. Turning his head and looking over his shoulder he shouted, "If you two are done talking I'd like to get a move on. This place is boring enough without my fights constantly being interrupted."

When he heard no one following him he turned around, "Well? What the hell is keeping you?"

"Do you think we are going to just walk all the way to Moonglade?" Eowry asked with amusement in his voice.

Kenpachi gave the priest a straight look, "Moonglade? What the hell kind of name is that? I was just going to follow this road until I hit a dead end."

"I'm glad you paid attention," Tathris answered sarcastically and motioned for Kenpachi to follow her. The shinigami captain grumbled and followed her around the outer wall of Everlook until they reached a night elf taking care of a small flock of hippogryphs.

Maethrya turned as her ears picked up the sound of feet crunching on the snow and ice, "Tathris, Eowry, I did not expect to see you two for at least another week, and I see you have a new companion. Did everything work out well?"

"More or less," Tathris said with a shrug, "We're going to need three hippogryphs to Moonglade."

"Wait just a second" Kenpachi growled, "No one said anything about flying."

"Hippogryphs are the fastest and safest way to travel across Kalimdor, It would take days to reach Moonglade by foot while hippogryphs about an hour." Eowry answered.

"Ugh," Kenpachi grumbled and saw the creatures looking at him with what could only be amusement. He hated flying with a passion unless it was himself doing it. He had heard about these flying machines in the world of the living that allowed humans to cross the entire planet in about a day but would never take something like that. Kenpachi would rather die a coward than admit he got airsick. No one, not even Yachiru, knew that little tidbit about him.

"Great."

* * *

...

* * *

A shadow was cast over the remains of the lich Balzaphon as they lay silent in the arctic landscape of Winterspring. The local wildlife had stayed far away from the undead creature's corpse, some innate sense of danger and death warning them of the plague still prevalent in the shattered bones.

"Tell me what you know…"

The spectral armored figure knelt down next to the lich and held a gloved hand over its remains. Channeling necromantic magic through his fingers, purple and blue sparks shot off of his fingers and into Balzaphon. Immediately wisps of blue energy emerged from the lich and floated into the air. The armored figure stared intently at the pattern of the wisps, as if seeing something no one else was able to. After nearly five minutes he clenched his fist, cutting off the wisps still in the air, and stood back up to his full height.

"How intriguing," his reverberating and powerful voice echoed through the area, scattering whatever wildlife had remained in sheer fear, "Balzaphon had grown careless to have exposed his phylactery so easily. Believing it was safe at the bottom of Lake Kel'Theril was foolish."

A lich that was unable to plot and protect itself was of no use to one such as him. Let them play their games of politics and backstabbing. He knew who had the power and cunning to succeed at their tasks, "I sense there was a warrior as well as a priest. They managed to surprise Balzaphon…but what is this third presence?"

The figure concentrated his presence on this third fighter. He had to be careful to not alert anyone of him being in Wintersprings. Channeling all his mana inwards he attempted to figure out just who this other fighter was. He was replaying the lich's last memories and emotions but he couldn't place just what this person was. He was skilled, no doubt, to fight a lich single-handedly and win.

Sensing someone approaching the armored figure began fading away in the wind back to his body, "How interesting. I will need to find out just who this person is."

* * *

...

* * *

Ichigo jumped into the air just as a ghoul attempted to claw open his stomach. Without missing a beat the substitute shinigami spun and skewered the undead creature with Zangetsu. Landing back on the ground he barely had time to reorient himself before he was forced to block another ghoul's slobbering maw from chomping down on his shoulder.

"You things are starting to piss me off!"

With a shout of effort he pushed the undead back and into several of its friends with enough force to topple them over. Ichigo had noticed earlier that whenever he cut or injured the undead, the creatures tended to overreact to the most minor of injuries. It could have been just the difference between this world and Earth but he had a strange feeling it had to do with why he couldn't speak to Zangetsu or use his reiryoku as he normally could.

"Hey Toshiro you got a plan or something?"

"A plan?" the captain asked as he, with a quick slash of his zanpakuto, severed three giests that had leapt into the air in a vain attempt to ambush him, "It wasn't as if I was expecting an army of the undead to just show up out of nowhere. I suppose we could simply continue to fight them until the retreat or are all dead."

"Until they are dead?" Ichigo deadpanned at Toshiro's excuse, "You really have no idea, do you?"

"Take aim and fire! Don't let any of these infernal creatures cross the bridge!"

Toshiro grabbed Ichigo and threw himself to the ground as bullets saturated the air in front of them. The ghouls and zombies they were fighting did not react in time and were riddled with holes and wounds and, in some cases, torn apart. As the last moans from the undead abated Ichigo managed to pick his head up and shouted, "What the hell was that for?"

"Huh?" a gruff voice asked, "Hold on a second men. These two seem to still be breathing."

On the other side of the bridge across the canal that connected Old Town with the Dwarven District nearly two dozen gnomes and dwarves were sitting, and in some cases standing, behind makeshift barricades and walls. Even at the distance they were at, the two shinigami could count nearly ten shotguns and other weapons pointed at them.

"Hey wait a second!" Ichigo raised his hands in surrender, "Don't shoot!"

One dwarf with a graying beard pulled into two braids stepped forward gave the two shinigami a look over. Apparently satisfied with what he saw he turned and shouted back, "Let them pass."

When they didn't follow him the dwarf asked, "Are you going to stand there all day and wait for the undead to get you?"

Sparing a glance, the two followed the dwarf as he led them through a hole in the barricades. As soon as they were through a pair of gnomes quickly moved in and sealed it back up just as the undead prepared another assault.

Across the bridge Ichigo and Toshiro could see dozens of refugees and civilians mingling through the streets with Stormwind guards interspaced with the militia that formed in the wake of the undead invasion. The dwarf walked them through the crown until they entered a building. Inside they could see several men and women of various races huddled around a table, "I'm glad there are still warriors of our caliber alive in this city. The blasted undead took everyone by surprise. Name's Ulfic Ironbeard by the way."

Ichigo nodded but asked, "Can anyone tell me just what the hell is going on?"

"What's going on is that we are in the midst of a undead invasion," Ulfic answered.

"Undead? You mean like walking, talking corpses?" Ichigo asked, "That's impossible."

"Impossible nothing. Just go outside and take a look across the canal," Ulfic answered matter-of-factly, "Near as we could tell they started pouring into the city not ten minutes ago. Took out a lot of the city guards in that first wave. Tried to force their way into our district but didn't count on our quick preparations. Our fortifications should hold out unless they send in aerial reinforcements."

"You have ranged weapons, that shouldn't be a problem," Toshiro pointed out

"Kid," Toshiro growled slightly at the nickname, "Have you ever tried to pierce a gargoyle's skin with a bullet? Damn near impossible unless you have dark iron or thorium and both are damn near expensive."

"So what do you want with us?" Toshiro asked between gritted teeth. He was constantly reminding himself that in this world he looked just like a child.

"Truth be told we are on our last ropes," Ulfic reached across the table towards a hastily drawn map of the city, "We might be fine for the moment but we are cut off from the other sections of the city. I have no idea whether anyone else is still alive in Stormwind or if there is a city-wide resistance against the undead. We need to figure out what is going on."

"Ulfic! Ulfic!" A high-pitched voice shouted from somewhere outside. Not a moment later a gnome with pale red hair came running into the building out of breath, "I finished it Ulfic."

"Already?" the dwarf asked perplexed.

A smug grin appeared on the gnome's face, "I had to improvise, call in a few favors and salvage parts from some of my other inventions…"

"And?"

The gnome gave a guilty chuckle, "And I may have stolen some components from several arcane enchanters."

Ulfic rubbed the bridge of his nose to stave off the impending headache, "Just tell me if it will work Lilliam."

Lilliam Sparkspindle nodded enthusiastically, "But of course my device will work. I guarantee it."

Ichigo didn't like the gleam in the gnome's eye. He had seen that same look on Urahara several times before the perverted scientist attempted to test his inventions on the substitute shinigami. Turning to Ulfic with a worried expression he asked, "Just what kind of device are we talking about?"

"A bomb!" the gnome answered plainly.

Toshiro turned to Ichigo when the substitute began sweating nervously. As a captain of the Gotei 13 he had been kept relatively up to date with the progress of the Human World but several things about what the gnome had just said made no sense.

"I don't mean to intrude," he stepped in, "But how will a bomb be effective against the undead?"

"No, no, no," Lilliam shook his head and pointed towards the crudely drawn necropolis on the map, "We're aiming for that."

"Ah," Ichigo and Toshiro said at the same time.

"I've packed enough force into my bomb to blow that cursed necropolis all the way back to Northrend! The only question is figuring out just how to get it there without being torn apart by the undead in the process."

Ulfic pondered over the map, "That necropolis seems to be hovering just over the Mage Quarters. If we can reach the tower would that be high enough to launch the bomb?"

The gnome pondered it over, "I suppose but getting there is the hard part. There are hundreds of undead between here and there. Unless your two new friends are good enough combatants they will be slaughtered long before making it there."

"What a second!" Ichigo crossed his forearms in front of his body, "Who said anything about us risking our lives against an entire army?"

Ulfic seemed slightly surprised by Ichigo's vehement refusal, "If you don't do this Stormwind won't last until tomorrow. Unless we can cut off the source of the undead we will be simply worn down and, quite frankly, you two are the best we got from what I saw before."

A man draped in the armor of a captain of the Stormwind guard walked towards them from across the room, "If you're putting our lives in the hands of children then we are already dead."

Finishing his drink and slamming the glass on the table the man looked at Ichigo and then Toshiro, "The name's Thomas Steelguard. I'm a captain, or was, of the Stormwind Guard. These blighted undead took us by surprise. Wiped out nearly all my men before we could retreat to safety."

"Stand down Thomas," Ulfic growled, "I saw with my own two eyes these kids fight through a battalion of undead on their way through Old Town. If anyone here can make it to the Mage Quarters it's them."

"Very well," Thomas answered with a sour look, "Just don't say I didn't warn you all."

"What an asshole," Ichigo muttered as soon as the guard had stalked out of earshot.

"Give the man a break kid. He lost nearly everyone under his command in less time then you could imagine."

Toshiro elbowed Ichigo before he could say anything. Turning to Lilliam, who was nearly at eye level with the captain, he asked, "If we can get back to the topic at hand, where is this so-called bomb?"

"Right here," Lilliam reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object.

Ichigo picked up the softly glowing blue cylinder in one hand and looked it over, "This is the bomb? It's so small."

"Do not mock gnome engineering," Lilliam warned with a wag of a finger, "That is a direct scale-model replica of a thorium bomb with an arcane mana implosion device. Once you manage to get into position, it will launch itself at the necropolis and hit it with nearly a kiloton of energy."

"Holy crap!" Ichigo fumbled with the arcane bomb before managing to catch it, "You didn't tell me this thing was nuclear!"

"Nuclear?" Lilliam asked with a puzzled look before it dawned on him, "Ah yes. You are worried about the energy yield. I should have mentioned that when it hits the target, it emits an arcane barrier that prevents anything outside of a twenty meter radius from being hit by the force. What did you think I was? A goblin?"

"Oh thank god," Ichigo sighed. As long as it didn't detonate in his hands he was fine, "Wait a second, holding this thing won't mutate me or anything will it?"

Lilliam made an annoyed sound with his tongue, "Of course not! The mutation rate of this arcane bomb is only about 0.02%. Just get close enough to the necropolis and push the button on top. You'll have ten seconds to throw it. As a safety feature it will not work until you are close enough. Wouldn't want it to go off as you fight your way over."

"My men can guard you as you make your way there," Ulfic rolled up the map, "Give me five minutes to-"

"Ulfic!"

A tired and injured dwarf stumbled into the building and collapsed onto his knees. Gasping for breath he managed to say, "The undead are throwing everything they have from the northwest! Abominations, wights, geists! We don't know how much longer we can hold out!"

The building erupted into a cacophony of shouting and boots stamping as the guards and soldiers hurriedly left to bolster the only bridge leading across the canal from the cathedral. As the sound of gunfire and spells began to vibrate through the air Ulfic looked grim, "It seems as if you two are on your own. We'll stay here and prevent the undead from flanking you from the rear. You only have one shot so make it count!"

"If you make it through to the Trading District look for Bolvar Fordragon," Thomas offered before leaving, "Let the reagent know that there are still some of his men fighting for Stormwind."

As the two shinigami were forcibly pushed towards Old Town Toshiro asked, "Just how are we supposed to get to this Mage District?"

"Figure that out for yourself!" Ulfic answered.

"But-"

"Come on Toshiro," Ichigo grabbed the captain's haori and pulled him along despite his protests, "We need to help these people."

"I know that," Toshiro struggled to free himself, "But we don't even know how to get there."

Ichigo had reached the other side of the bridge and turned to the right, "It can't be that hard. We'll just follow the necropolis thing until we're underneath it."

Toshiro had to admit that was actually a pretty smart idea, "Very well then but can you please LET GO OF ME?"

"Oh sorry."

Toshiro adjusted himself and strode past Ichigo, "If you are done playing around we need to move quickly. There is no telling what the-"

Ichigo, who was walking several feet behind Toshiro, noticed the captain cut off, "No telling what Toshiro?"

When he saw why the captain stopped talking Ichigo quickly dove to the left as a barrage of spells bombarded his previous position. It turned out that the Scourge heavily guarded the bridge they were looking for. It appeared that whatever intelligence in charge of this invasion realized the importance of the bridges across the canals and had positions their forces accordingly. Ichigo didn't know what the individual undead were but he could see a few abominations surrounded by a dozen ghouls, geists, and skeletons. Several of the latter undead had turned away from the other side of the canal and began casting spells left and right at the two shinigami.

Ichigo ducked as another one of the undead mages launched a fireball at him. The spell impacted the wall he was hiding behind and shook the building. Looking across the road to Toshiro, who had taken refuge behind several metal boxes, he shouted, "How the hell are we supposed to get past them?"

"I do not know," Toshiro responded as one of the undead tried to leap over the boxes only to be skewered by the captain's zanpakuto, "If Hyōrinmaru was able to respond I would use my shikai."

"What about, I don't know, a kido or something?"

"You don't think I've tried that?" Toshiro argued as one of the boxes exploded from the force behind a spell, "I tried to cast one as soon as we were ambushed but nothing happened!"

"God damn it!" Ichigo was starting to get pissed at the undead mages taking potshots at them. If he remained here eventually they would get a lucky shot. He wasn't sure if their magic would effect a shinigami but he wasn't stupid enough to find out the hard way, "Hey Toshiro! I think I could manage a Getsuga Tenshou if I throw everything I have into it!"

"Are you nuts?" the captain answered. Quite frankly he was almost at the point where that sounded like a good idea but there were still options to consider, "If you do that, if you are even able to, you'll destroy the undead as well as the bridge and the surrounding area. The property damage will be enormous!"

Ichigo grumbled as he realized the captain was right, "Damn it. If we don't think of something we're screwed."

"Everyone sync your mana and cast! Blizzard!"

Ichigo and Toshiro turned at the new voice and stared as the horde of undead guarding the bridge was caught in a miniature snowstorm that slowly caused them to be covered in ice and frost. Across the canal they saw a woman leading a group of mages to attack the undead.

"Do not lose your focus," the blonde woman ordered, "We mustn't allow any of the undead to escape the area of effect."

With a resounding cry of 'My Lady' the mages redoubled their effects and forced out as much mana as they contained. The blizzard surrounding the undead on the bridge quickly turned to a flash freeze and Ichigo saw one of the abominations try to attack the mages only for a stream of fireballs to shatter its weakened flesh. After continuously casting the spell for over a minute the mages released it with a collective sigh of relief. As the mages rested and regained their energy the blonde haired woman noticed the two shinigami and walked across the remains of the undead.

"I must thank you two for distracting the undead. We've been trying to dislodge them for several minutes but their spellcasters constantly interrupted us."

"Er…you're welcome," Ichigo said embarrassed.

"I think what he is trying to say is that it was no problem," Toshiro finished for the substitute shinigami, confused as to why he was acting the way he was, "By the way, who exactly are you people?"

The woman's eyes widened momentarily and she smiled, "Oh how rude of me. With all this excitement I must have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Jaina Proudmoore and things like this are why I don't like to leave Theramore."

* * *

...

* * *

Leave it to a black dragon to turn having the flu into an advantage.

Katrana Prestor stared out at the fighting within the city, her city she felt the need to remind herself. How dare the Lich King send his abominations to take down the very city she nearly had in the palm of her hand. If Bolvar did not have the army backing him she would have complete power. Nearly biting off one of her nails from sheer nervousness she turned towards her specially designed fireplace.

She couldn't have foreseen the Scourge invading when she had the flu but it was the perfect alibi. With Bolvar out in the city coordinating the most likely to be successful counterattack there was no one left in the keep to watch over her. Even the normal guards outside her room had been recalled to the fighting. Katrana just didn't know how much time she had to work with.

"Calm down Katrana," she chanted and took a deep breath, "There is no need to panic. The situation can still be salvaged."

Clapping her hands in front of her face, she closed her eyes and expanded her hidden draconic senses. It would not do to find another spy or rogue hiding somewhere nearby that could discover what she was. The last time that happened, she very nearly died.

"_Reginald Windsor nearly uncovered everything that day he escaped from Blackrock. For a human he did show great intellect. Too bad I had to kill him,"_ she thought with amusement, _"I did not expect them to chase me all the way across Azeroth to my lair and 'slay' me. Mortals can be so amusing."_

Katrana, or Onyxia as her true name was, had pulled perhaps the most convoluted and genius plot ever hatched by a black dragon. Her father would be so proud if he was still alive. When the group of adventurers had broken through every layer of defense and assaulted her directly she had made sure to make her death as dramatic and flashy as possible. While the mortals had covered their bodies and eyes in preparation for an attack, she used the time to create a body illusion. Using some of her whelps as well as her very own flesh, she created a corpse dummy that could be mistaken for her by even her brother, Nefarion.

Hiding in the upper layers of her lair, she watched the mortals pick through her 'corpse' for any valuables like the grave robbers they were. Swallowing her hatred she had quickly teleported back to Stormwind Keep but instead of appearing in the middle of the throne chamber she purposely put herself into one of the cells in the dungeon. Using her ragged and bloody appearance from faking her death to her advantage she had screamed herself hoarse asking for help. Needless to say that when Bolvar and the rest of the guards had found another Katrana Prestor locked up in a cell looking to be on the verge of death they were surprised. They were even more so when she said she'd been down there for weeks.

She stopped reminiscing for a moment and gently blew out between her fingers once she was sure she was alone. A thin black flame shot out and into the fireplace. After a moment the enchanted bricks slid apart, exposing a small teleportation circle directly behind the fireplace. As she waited for the messenger to arrive she continued to think just how lucky she was to have her story bought.

When the guards had hoisted her up and dragged her to be interrogated, still according to her plan, she had concocted the story that some woman named Onxyia had drugged and locked her in a cell months ago after sifting through her memories in order to take her place. She didn't know why she had woken up but realized it had something to do with Onyxia. When Bolvar had conveniently explained that Onxyia was dead she had cried in fake joy, cementing the trust of those who still didn't believe she was the real Katrana. Apparently being a stoic and slightly sadistic human who rarely showed emotions did wonders when tears were involved. The hug afterwards helped, even if it almost made her vomit on Bolvar is sheer disgust. The only problem was she needed to keep up her more friendly façade and that, more then anything, caused her to feel nauseous almost all the time.

Suppressing her human gag reflex from the vile thought she bit her nail in worry. Leave it to the humans to force her to develop such a nasty nervous habit,_ "What is taking so long?"_

As if by fate, at that very moment a black whelp appeared through the circle and was about to let out a shriek of relief when its broodmother's glare silenced it. Whispering to avoid eavesdroppers she told the drake in her natural draconic, "I need you to deliver a message to my brother. Tell him that the Lich King and his undead army have made a move on Stormwind. Let him know that I may need to improvise and deviate from the plan from here on out. I will let him know if there are any further updates. Also let him know that there is a powerful dragon here. I cannot risk revealing myself. Now go."

The whelp gave the dragon equivalent of a nod and disappeared back into the teleportation circle. As the fireplace slid back to normal Katrana turned towards her window and was about to bite a nail when she grimaced.

"Stupid humans," she cursed and sneezed.

* * *

...

* * *

Flint Shadowmore peered around the corner in the expansive Undercity sewers. His eyes, trained to spot a bug moving in the darkest of shadows, focused on each individual corner. When he found nothing blocking his way he frowned in suspicion. Where were the forsaken rogues able to blend into the very shadows or even a spattering of guards? This was a large hole in the forsaken's security. The banshee queen would have to be stupid to not fortify this obvious weakness. Suspicious of an ambush he raised a hand to bring his group's movement to a halt.

"_Nothing's worse for the mouse then the obvious cheese."_

Gathering his thoughts and taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he whispered to his rescued captives, "Stay put. Something's not right here."

Uryu glanced around the corner but saw nothing, "The coast is clear, why aren't we moving?"

Flint bit back an insult, "Because this is too easy. The forsaken may be undead but they're not stupid, at least the intelligent ones. Freedom is not even two hundred meters away and yet it seems like an obvious trap."

"I thought you said you've been here before?"

Flint answered without turning around, "Listen kid. The Undercity is not just some place you can sneak in to. For any of the other horde capital cities you can plan for guard shifts based on sleeping and eating schedules but that doesn't work for the forsaken. They don't sleep, eat or even breathe. If you try outlasting a forsaken you are likely to be the one to lose. It took me nearly three days to just get to where I was. Now stay here. I'm going to give this last room one final sweep for traps. I'll signal you the all clear."

Uryu watched Flint move forward with his hands covering every bump and crack in the worn stone floor for traps. He almost forgot he wasn't alone when Harribel gave what passed for a frustrated sigh, "This is pointless. He is obviously wasting our time."

"He does know more about this place then we do," Uryu said in an attempt to placate the arrancar but realized it was pointless when she continued to stare at him with those emotionless green eyes and, quite frankly, that unnerved him slightly, "Perhaps it would be best to bow to his wisdom this once. We are in hostile territory and he did help us escape. He deserves at least the benefit of the doubt."

Harribel closed her eyes but gave no sign that she was actually listening to him. When Uryu heard the sound of metal scraping he turned and saw her drawing her zanpakuto from its sheathe. Before he could ask what she was doing, her flat voice answered as if telepathically, "I would advise that you head towards the exit."

"Why?"

The former espada walked nonchalantly past Uryu and towards the exit, her zanpakuto held lazily in one hand, "You may be unable to sense it with your human senses but I can feel several dozen presences rapidly closing in on this location. While none of them are nowhere near the level of power that woman possessed they would pose difficulty for someone in your…weakened state."

Concentrating Uryu could barely make out the faintest of whispers and footsteps. Abandoning all sense of stealth in order to preserve his life he bolted past Harribel into the room. Running past Flint he said, "Move!"

To his credit the rogue didn't hesitate but simply followed the quincy out of the Undercity sewers. As the two broke through the underbrush covering up the entrance to the sewers from the dark forests of Tirisfal Glades Flint took off to the west.

"This way!"

Uryu hesitated when he didn't see Harribel. He was about to go look for her when several loud bangs echoed through the area. Retracing his steps to the sewer he found Harribel using her zanpakuto to collapse the back entrance to Undercity just as the forsaken were about to reach them.

"That should stop them from following us for at least a little while," she said while sheathing her zanpakuto.

"Why didn't you do that when we were inside?"

"And risk it collapsing on top of us?" she answered with derision, "My hierro has already surprised me once today. I do not want to find out just how much it has weakened."

At this point in time Uryu desperately wished he had landed in this hellish world with anyone besides Harribel. Even Ichigo would be an improvement, "That's not what I'm concerned about. What you just did sent out the equivalent of a homing beacon. Odds are these forsaken aren't just limited to that single underground city. If any were nearby they might investi-"

Uryu stopped in midsentence and leapt back just as an arrow passed through the air where his knee had just been. Reacting solely on instinct he took his stolen bow and charged his reiryoku through it before unleashing a half powered heilig pfeil in the general direction of the shooter. It wouldn't be smart to create an explosion and draw even more attention. He simply needed to incapacitate or injure them, he didn't even know if he could permanently kill an undead. That was a question for another day.

As the spiritual arrow sped through the air at nearly the speed of sound, the young quincy allowed a small grin to break out across his feet as his attack made contact with the tree the attacker was hiding in. As the upper half of the plant detonated in a blue fireball he witnessed a body crash to the ground in the distance and not get up.

"We shouldn't wait around for any more company," he told Harribel, who had simply stood there watching him without moving. Upon closer inspection Uryu saw that she held in her hand another arrow.

"Your reaction time needs to improve," she said without emotion, "This was heading straight for your shoulder before I intercepted it."

Crushing the arrow between her fingers with minimal effort she turned to walk in the direction that Flint had run off in. Uryu stood staring at her retreating backside before a cloud of gloom appeared over his head, "Saved by an arrancar. My pride as a quincy is all but gone."

Not too long later they caught up to Flint. The rogue was no longer alone and seemed to be talking feverishly to another person covered head to toe with only their eyes exposed. When Flint saw Harribel and Uryu approaching he turned to his companion and animatedly pointed at them. The figure looked over Flint's shoulder before shrugging and handing the rogue an envelope. Flint pocketed it and handed something in return. As the two guests to Azeroth got within earshot the rogue walked up to them.

"Alright, everything is all set. My companion has managed to procure two vampire bats that should take you safely to Chillwind Camp. With any luck the forsaken will think you're part of the horde and won't attack. We need to move quickly and get you saddled up. There's no telling how long we have before the undead track us down."

"Why are you helping us?" Uryu asked with suspicion.

"I'll be frank with you kid," Flint said while inspecting a dagger, "The dungeon known as Plague Prison is not a place the forsaken talk about. Even our spies within the horde claim the forsaken don't even let their allies near that place. You two are now the two most important people in all of Lordaeron. I need to get you two to safety and back to Stormwind as quickly as possible."

Harribel coughed in a ruined glove, "Before we embark on this foolish quest may I ask a favor?"

"Er…sure."

In a completely dry and flat tone she asked, "Would it be too much trouble to get a change of clothing? My current attire is no longer adequate."

For the first time since arriving in this world and rescuing her, Uryu got a good look at the state of Harribel's clothing and quickly turned to cover the massive blush threatening to cover his face. Due to the constant fighting and explosions they had faced in escaping the Undercity her outfit was ripped and torn in several places but was not yet destroyed enough to threaten her modesty. Flint seemed to also agree with Harribel and turned to his companion.

"Fredo, do we have anything that could help our friend?"

Fredo stroked his chin, "I may have something to suit a paladin of your stature."

Harribel quirked an eyebrow, "Paladin? I just want something to change into."

Fredo waved off Harribel's complaints and entered one of the tents. As the sounds of him rooting through various objects became apparent he began rambling, "Paladin or warrior. It's all the same to me, just a muscle head swinging a sword around and calling it style. No finesse or grace. Now where was it? Aha! Madam, if you don't mind will you please come into the tent to try on your new armor? A woman of your beauty would not want the entire world to see you change."

As Harribel cautiously entered the tent, obviously wary of anyone who would praise her left and right, Uryu turned to Flint and warily asked, "Do we really have time for this?"

Flint didn't seem to be happy about it either, "While I don't condone my colleague's decision you don't need to worry. This place is warded against the undead and should be safe for at least another hour. By the time their rotten brains have even a hint as to this place we'll be long gone"

Several uneventful minutes passed and Uryu was starting to come down from the adrenaline high he had been on since waking up in the prison. Ignored the flat comments from Harribel and the rebuttals from the man helping her change he began to think about what to do next. After mulling over his options he decided to ask his new acquaintance for advice.

"If I were looking for someone on Azeroth but didn't know where to start, where would you suggest I start looking?"

The rogue grunted as he finished tying up a bag, "The best place to start would be Stormwind but Ironforge is almost as good. Although if your coin is good and you don't care how it's done you can pay the goblins. They may be greedy little bastards but you can't question their dedication."

"_First undead and now goblins? Did I fall into a dungeons and dragon's parody?"_

"I suppose that's a start."

Uryu turned when he heard a light rustling coming from the tent.

"That is different," he said when he saw Harribel. Personally he thought she looked better in white. White was stylish and went well with everything.

Harribel walked out of the tent while adjusting the final black and gold glove into place. Instead of her previous white hakama long associated with Aizen Sosuke's force, which she felt no need to get rid of since fashion was something the arrancar did not partake in, she now was wearing something that was visibly similar but at the same time quite different. The color motif was mostly black and gold with a red and white elaborate design embroidered across the front. While the arms and chest area hugged her figure much like her previous outfit, the legs opened up into a battle skirt of the same color scheme as the rest of the armor. As she finished adjusting the glove and strapping it to her main armor, Fredo came out of the tent with a hooded helm.

"You forgot this."

"No I didn't," Harribel answered and rolled her neck. She would need to get used to wearing something different, especially if that something had shoulderguards but that was where she drew the line.

"Very well," Fredo tossed it back into the tent in an undignified heap, "Anyway, the armor you are currently wearing was fitted for a friend of mine who unfortunately died to the Blightcaller almost a week ago."

As Harribel adjusted her zanpakuto that lay strapped to her back, Uryu noticed something different about her, "What happened to your mask?"

The arrancar gently raised a hand to her face and instead of feeling the normal bone there was now just soft skin. She had become so used to the fragments of her mask being there that she didn't realized they were gone, "That is rather strange."

Leaning in so that Flint and Fredo couldn't hear Uryu asked, "Perhaps this is an effect of this world?"

Harribel looked pensive before her green eyes focused on Uryu, "You have a point human but I will not press my luck. Now please leave me alone until we are ready to depart."

When Uryu acquiesced to her demand and walked across the clearing to help Fredo with something Harribel's mind was churning. She could easily hide her emotions from humans and those unable to detect the most subtle twitch of facial muscles but she was actually quite relieved that her mask fragments were gone. They were a reminder of her time as a mindless beast before she regained her humanity and intellect. When she evolved to a vasto lorde and regained her memories of her life as a human she felt sick for everything she had done in the afterlife and refused to devour another soul or hollow, which led to her defeat to that other shark arrancar and her loyalty to Sosuke Aizen. Part of her reason for joining him was a chance to remove all traces of her life as a hollow but when she became an arrancar and most of her mask remained she hid it and half her face away from the world.

Any further introspection was stopped when Flint hurried across the camp, "You need to get saddled up now!"

Unperturbed by his hasty entrance she asked, "I thought you said we were safe here for the time being?" When the rogue looked confused at her she finished, "I have very good hearing."

"We were," he said after a moment and pointed at something in the sky, "Until that thing spotted us."

Nearly three hundred meters away and just above the tree line was a floating green eye staring at them. As it turned to float away and report back to its master Uryu came running up with his bow drawn, "I'll take care of it."

As a thin heilig pfeil formed in the bow Uryu grit his teeth and concentrated. He had reduced the overall reiryoku in the arrow in order to boost its velocity to take out that eye but he didn't know if he could accurately hit it at nearly half a kilometer away.

"_I have to make this shot count."_

The heilig pfeil flew out of the bow and rocketed across the western forests of Tirisfal Glades towards the eye of kilrogg. As he watched with bated breath as the arrow flew towards the demonic summoning, Uryu let out a sigh of relief when there was a small explosion of felfire.

"What was that thing?"

Flint spit on the ground, "An Eye of Kilrogg. Warlocks use them to spy at great distances and powerful ones can even see straight through protective runes and enchantments. Now that they spotted us we are in great danger."

He whistled and two vampire bats came screeching out of the dark woods, "Take these two to Chillwind Camp. I would come but you are somehow important to the forsaken. I can't risk you falling back into their hands."

Uryu and Harribel didn't need to be told twice and quickly got on the bats. With another whistle the two flying beasts took flight and quickly headed east. Flint and Fredo watched them leave before turning to the south, where they could hear the forsaken approach. When the baying of plaguehounds tore through the still air Fredo recognized it for what it was.

"Well Flint, it seems our old friend Nathanos is paying us a visit," he said and dusted off his hands. Taking two gleaming black daggers out of his belt he slid into a common rogue stance, "Shall we get ready for our new guest?"

Flint chuckled and drew his own weapons of choice, "We shall."

* * *

...

* * *

_**Author'****s**** Note:** This chapter brought in a lot of canon characters (major and minor).  
_

_Yes, that was Harribel wearing the Paladin Tier 2 Judgement Armor. I know some of you would prefer her to travel around Azeroth in her normal espada uniform but with all the damage she had taken fighting Sylvanas as well as escaping from the Undercity she desperately needed a change of clothing. The no mask thing was an obvious change to her character since everyone on Azeroth would question and point out the mask stuck to her neck and lower face. It was a good opportunity to develop her character a bit more._

_Fredo and Flint Shadowmore are both characters from SI:7 that were investigating Nathanos Blightcaller in game. I felt the need to include them as well as their on-going conflict with the human ranger._

**Original Characters**

**1. Zunabar (Troll Druid – Horde):** Zunabar is one of the few troll druids that exist on Azeroth and within the Horde. With no one to teach him he taught himself everything he could about druidism and eventually gained the attention of the Cenarion Circle as well as offers of apprenticeship from both the night elves as well as tauren. After several years of painstaking effort and work he finally joined the Cenarion Circle.

**2. Rahina (Orc Warrior – Horde):** A head-strong but loyal member of the Horde. Rahina values loyalty and honor above even her life. Unlucky enough to have spent several years of her childhood in the interment camps that came into existence after the end of the Second War she has yet to forgive the humans for the atrocities she witnessed against her people.

**3. Ithra Gravestone (Forsaken Mage – Horde):** When Ithra died from the plague of undeath she was unlucky enough to come back to unlife with her skills as a mage intact. Consciously aware of her actions but unable to disobey the will of the Lich King she committed countless atrocities against the innocent. When her master's power waned from Illidan's interference she wasted no time breaking free and regaining her will as well as her memories. Aware of what she has done but unable to forget she hunts the Scourge with a passion.

**4. Thomas Steelguard (Human Warrior – Alliance):** Thomas's men were unprepared for the undead invasion of Stormwind. Before he could even put up a meager defense, the undead annihilated his men and almost killed him. With what surviving men he had, he retreated to the Dwarven District to plot his revenge.


End file.
